Adventures of Kazakhs in Tibet

(Continued from the previous issue.)

Aleksey Goncharov

Kailash
There were several hours of traveling left, which began before dawn. Suddenly, a blinding white tooth, or pyramid, emerged above the monotony of the brown mountains. This was Kailash. We were fascinated, and stepped out of our cars to observe it for a long time. Everybody who knows anything about Tibet knows about this mountain. Kailash is the center of the universe for hundreds of millions of followers of one of the oldest religions in the world; it is sacred as Mecca for Muslims and the holy grave of Jesus for Christians. But the pilgrimage to the latter is much more difficult.
There are ravines to the left and the right of the mountain, through which one can travel around Kailash. This ritual walk around the mountain is called