|
Mt. Kailash lies at the
center of an area that is
the key to the drainage
system of the Tibetan
plateau, and from which
issues four of the great
rivers of the Indian
subcontinent: the Karnali,
which feeds into the Ganges(
south ), the Indus( north ),
the Sutlej ( west ) and the
Brahmaputra ( Yarlung
Tsangpo, east ).
Mt Kailash, at 6714m, is
not the mightiest of the
mountains in the region but,
with its hulking shape -
like the handle of a
millstone, according to
Tibetans - and its year-long
snow-capped peak, it stands
apart from the pack. The
mountain is known in Tibetan
as Kang Rinpoche, or
"Precious Jewel of Snow".
Kailash has long been an
object of worship for four
major religions. For the
Hindus, Kailash is regarded
as the center of the
universe and the domain of
Shiva, the Destroyer and
Transformer. To the faithful
Buddhist, Kailash is the
abode of Demchok, a wrathful
manifestation of Sakyamuni
thought to be an equivalent
of Hinduism's Shiva. The
Jains of India also revere
the mountain as the site at
which the first of their
saints was emancipated. And
in the ancient Bon religion
of
Tibet,
Kailash was the sacred nine
story
Swastika
Mountain, upon which the
Bonpo founder Shenrab
alighted from heaven. |
