After 5-yr hiatus, 720 to embark on Kailash Mansarovar Yatra

A total of 720 pilgrims, including 30 liaison officers, will go for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra this summer after five years, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced in a ceremony on Wednesday.

The pilgrimage took place between June and September through the two official routes of Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand and Nathu La Pass in Sikkim. Five batches of 48 devotees each are scheduled to travel through Lipulekh Pass. The remaining pilgrims will travel through Nathu La Pass, in 10 batches of 48 pilgrims each. Both routes are now fully motorable and involve very little trekking. Besides, two liaison officers would accompany each batch, the MEA said.

In January, India and China had agreed to resume the pilgrimage, which has not taken place since the Covid outbreak in 2020 and subsequent non-renewal of arrangements by the Chinese side. lt will resume this summer from the third week of June and will end on August 25, said an MEA official.

Located in Tibet, Mount Kailash and Mansarovar Lake are holy sites for the Hindus. This year, 5,384 applications – 3,898 of male pilgrims and 1,486 female — were received for the pilgrimage. As many as 404 of these applicants are aged above 65 years. Subsequently, pilgrims were selected through a lucky draw — a computer-generated, random and gender-balanced selection process.

Kirti Vardhan Singh, MoS in the MEA, said this yatra is also sacred for Buddhists and Jains. He further said the pilgrims would stay at the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra Bhawan at Ghaziabad and urged pilgrims to not pollute the site with their leftovers.