Hitchhiking to the Holy Kailash

For the Tibetan Buddhists, a pilgrimage to Kailash is among the important journeys to undergo in lifetime. People arrive by walking or hitchhiking from their hometown, often thousands of kilometers away. The pilgrimage ritual is to circumambulate the holy mountain (known as “kora”), about 53 kilometer trek at about 5000 meter elevation rugged Himalayan terrain. The local belief is to do the circular journey in odd numbers, means either you are supposed to do it once, or if you do twice you should do the third kora as soon as possible. They also belief that 108 times of kora around Kailash as a journey to the nirvana.