Yahan kan kan mein Shankar hain: Mansarovar mesmerises pilgrims

Suman Lata, in her early 60s, is a retired government schoolteacher in Delhi. She has trekked all the way to Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet as part of the first delegation of Indian pilgrims visiting the sacred site following the resumption of the yatra after 2019.

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At an altitude of 4,780 metres, the elderly woman shows no signs of exhaustion after a challenging trek that kicked off on June 11 from Delhi and ended in China via Nathu La Pass in Sikkim. She has done more than 50 km “parikrama”, or circumambulation, of the sacred mountain, where Hindus believe Lord Shiva resides with Parvati, and sought blessings at the divine Kailash Lake, whose first glimpse takes the breath away.

“Yahan toh kan kan mein Shankar hain, bata hi nahi sakte shabdon mein (Lord Shiva resides in every particle here; I cannot express myself in words),” she says excitedly.

The emotion resonates across fellow Indians staying at the base camp in Zunzhuipu Hostel in Purang county. They call each other family and consider themselves lucky to have made it for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity organised by the Indian and Chinese governments.

As many as 5,561 applicants had registered online for the yatra happening after six years. Only 750 yatris were selected through a draw. Ten batches of 50 yatris each are expected to travel via the Nathu La route, while five batches of 50 pilgrims each are likely to go via the Lipulekh route in Uttarakahand. The first jatha that has reached Purang has 39 persons, including 13 women. The Lipulekh route is set to open at the month-end.

The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra played a crucial role in normalising India-China ties after decades of hostilities following the 1962 war. Started in 1981 under the erstwhile regime of Deng Xiaoping, the yatra has been a key confidence-building measure towards people-to-people ties between both Asian neighbours.

But in 2019, the pilgrimage sacred to millions of devout Hindus, along with Buddhists, Jains and Bons, first became a casualty to the pandemic-induced lockdown. Later, the clashes between the Army and the Chinese PLA in Galwan cast a deep shadow on bilateral relations. A thaw in ties between Delhi and Beijing, accelerated by the meeting between PM Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping along the sidelines of the BRICS summit last year, put the yatra back on track.

Shailendra Sharma, a Delhi resident and yatra coordination committee head for the first batch, says, “We are very happy that the yatra has started.”

Asked if religious pilgrimages can and should be separated from political conflicts, the pilgrims in one voice say, “this should continue despite political situations.”

“The pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in Ngari, or Ali Prefecture, in Tibet, China, formally resumed this year. This grand event of cross-Himalayan cultural exchange is an important consensus reached by the leaders of China and India and a vivid practice of ‘mutual trust, mutual assistance and common development’ in China-India relations in the new era,” says Wen Tao, deputy commissioner of the region.

Amid the gradual melting of ice in relations between Delhi and Beijing despite all the challenges and mutual trust deficit, the mountain peaks here remain snow-clad and magnificent, leaving all those who view them for the first time overwhelmed, including this author.

(The writer is an independent journalist in Delhi and currently visiting Tibet)