KAILAŚA (KAILASH)

Kailāśa (Kailash) is one of Asia's preeminent sacred mountains. It is located in southwestern Tibet near the borders of India and Nepal. By Himalayan standards Mount Kailāśa is a modest peak, standing at 22,028 feet; yet the stature of its isolated snow-capped dome forms a striking image against the arid plateau. Together with Lake Manasarovar, eighteen miles to the southeast, Kailāśa forms one of the region's richest and most active pilgrimage sanctuaries, revered for nearly two millennia by followers of diverse religious traditions including Jains, Hindus, and members of the indigenous Tibetan Bon religion. Beginning in the eleventh century, Mount Kailāśa occupied a central position in the sacred landscape of Tibetan Buddhists, who associate the sanctuary complex with an array of buddhas, tantric deities, and past Buddhist masters. Situated at Asia's watershed, four of the continent's largest rivers originate within fifty miles of the mountain: the Brahmaputra, the Karnali, the Sutlej, and the Indus. Tibetan literature refers to the mountain as Gangs dkar Ti se (White Snow Mountain Ti se); in common parlance, however, it is simply called Gangs rin po che (Precious Snow Mountain).

Mount Kailāśa is popularly associated with Mount Meru, the central pillar of the world system as depicted in Buddhist and Hindu cosmology. Tibetan descriptive guides to Kailāśa, however, equate the mountain with a site known as Himavat or Himalaya (the Snowy, or the Snow Mountain), one of twenty-four sacred lands (piṭha) named in the Cakrasaṃvara-tantra as geographic locations efficacious for Buddhist practice (as well as sites "mapped" within the visualized vajra-body of the yogin meditator). The mythic narratives of the Cakrasaṃvara literature recount how, in primordial times, these twenty-four lands fell under the dominion of Maheśvara (Śiva), manifesting in the guise of the fierce, blood-thirsty god Bhairava (or Rudra). The buddha Vajradhara, in wrathful form as a Heruka deity, then subdued Bhairava, blessing each location as a maṆḌala of the deity Cakrasaṃvara and his retinue. The tradition of identifying Kailāśa within this sacred landscape was especially promoted by members of the Bka' brgyud (Kagyu) sect of Tibetan Buddhism, who grouped the peak together with two other important mountain pilgrimage sites in southern Tibet, La phyi and Tsa ri, identified respectively as Cakrasaṃvara's body, speech, and mind. These claims drew criticism from some Tibetan quarters; the renowned scholar Sa skya PaṆḌita (Sakya PaṆḌita; 1182–1251), for example, argued that the sites associated with Cakrasaṃvara were located not in Tibet but India, and were part of a visionary geography accessible only to highly skilled meditators. Modern scholars such as Toni Huber have begun to track the manner in which important sacred locations of India were "remapped" onto Tibetan soil.

Tibetan tradition credits both the historical Buddha and the Indian adept Padmasambhava (ca. eighth century) with visits to the mountain. Another important narrative recounts how the poet-yogin Mi la ras pa (Milarepa; 1028/40–1111/23) inaugurated Buddhism's ascendancy at Mount Kailāśa by defeating a rival Bon priest, Na ro bon chung, in a contest of miracles. The mountain later became associated with the

followers of Mi la ras pa, principally members of the 'Brug pa and 'Bri gung Bka' brgyud sects, who traveled in great numbers to meditate there.

Pilgrims from all quarters of the Tibetan Buddhist world continue to visit Mount Kailāśa, many remaining in residence for an entire season. Their primary practice is completing the arduous thirty-two mile clockwise circumambulation route around the mountain, often undertaken in a single eighteen-hour day of walking. (Bon pilgrims make the identical circuit in a counterclockwise direction.) Traditional pilgrimage guide books describe a complex array of sacred elements inscribed within the landscape around the mountain, as well as specific religious practices to be undertaken at various points along the trail.

See also:Space, Sacred

Bibliography

Allen, Charles. A Mountain in Tibet: The Search for Mount Kailas and the Sources of the Great Rivers of India. London: André Deutsch, 1982.

Chang, Garma C. C., ed. and trans. The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1962. Reprint, Boston: Shambhala, 1999.

Huber, Toni. "Where Exactly Are Carita, Devikota, and Himavat? A Sacred Geography Controversy and the Development of Tantric Buddhist Pilgrimage Sites in Tibet." Kailash 16, nos. 3–4 (1990): 121–164.

Huber, Toni, and Rigzin, Tsepak. "A Tibetan Guide for Pilgrimage to Ti-se (Mount Kailas) and mTsho Ma-pham (Lake Manasarovar)." In Sacred Spaces and Powerful Places in Tibetan Culture: A Collection of Essays, ed. Toni Huber. Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1999.

Ricard, Mathhieu, ed. and trans. "At Mt. Kailash." In The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.

Andrew Quintman