冈仁波齐 千年信仰传承

In the Ramayana, one of India's two great epics, Mount Kailasa is depicted as the abode of Lord Shiva. In the epic's seventh book, the Uttara Kanda, after Rama's conquest of Lanka, he hears legends of the sacred northern mountain Kailasa.

In Hindu tradition, Kailasa is venerated as Lord Shiva's abode. This tradition traces back to the two great epics — in the Ramayana, Kailasa is described as the most sacred peak in the Himalayas. The Sanskrit original frequently employs epithets such as "king of mountains" (parvataraja) and "shining like crystal" (sphatikābhra) to depict Kailasa's majesty.

Professor Robert P. Goldman's edited English translation of the Ramayana (Princeton University Press, multi-volume series, 1984-2017) is one of the most authoritative scholarly translations in Western academia, providing important foundations for understanding the concept of "Kailasa" in epic literature.

Notably, the epic's Kailasa is not a precise geographical description but a mythologized space. In early Vedic literature and epic traditions, "Kailasa" was more a symbolic concept representing the sanctity of the Himalayan range rather than specifically referring to today's Mount Kailash in Tibet's Ngari Prefecture.

This characteristic of "mythical geography" is key to understanding descriptions of Kailasa in ancient Indian religious literature.

John Snelling (1943-1992) was General Secretary of the Buddhist Society, London. His 1983 book "The Sacred Mountain: Travellers and Pilgrims at Mount Kailas in Western Tibet" — with forewords by H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama and Christmas Humphreys — is a landmark Western academic study of Kailash pilgrimage. The 1990 revised edition added the subtitle "The Complete Guide to Tibet's Mount Kailas."

Snelling wrote: "Mount Kailas — the most sacred mountain in the world. Uncannily symmetrical, this remote and remarkable peak located in the forbidden land of Tibet might have been built by superhuman hands. It stands out of a primordial landscape: a horizontally stratified plinth thousands of feet high, crowned with a perfect cone of pure snow."

On the four religions' reverence, Snelling summarized: "To Hindus it is the Throne of the great god Shiva. Buddhists associate it with Chakrasamvara, a powerful Tantric deity, and with the sage Milarepa, who fought a magic duel there with a shaman priest in ancient times. To the Bönpo, the followers of the indigenous religion of Tibet, it is the giant crystal on which their founder, Thönpa Shenrab, descended to earth from the skies."

He further noted: "For more than a millennium, Buddhist, Hindu and Bönpo pilgrims have been visiting this Throne of the Gods and performing pious circumambulation around it."

Charles Allen (1940-2020) was a celebrated British historian and travel writer. His 1982 book "A Mountain in Tibet: The Search for Mount Kailas and the Sources of the Great Rivers of Asia" traces both the legend of Kailash and the history of Western explorers searching for the sources of Asia's great rivers.

Allen pointed out: "Throughout the East there runs a legend of a great mountain at the centre of the world, where four rivers have their source. Charles Allen traces this legend to Western Tibet where there stands Kailas, worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists alike as the home of their gods and the navel of the world. Close by are the sources of four mighty rivers: the sacred Ganges, the Indus, the Sutlej and Tsangpo-Brahmaputra."

Allen's unique contribution lies in combining Kailash's **religious significance** with **geographical exploration**. He detailed how Westerners — from 18th-century British surveyors to 20th-century Swedish explorer Sven Hedin — gradually approached this sacred mountain.

Wolfgang Wöllmer (a medical physicist who completed six Kailash pilgrimages between 2002-2014) and Alexey Perchukov (Russian Tibet researcher) published the authoritative paper "The Spiral Kora of Mount Kailash" in The Himalayan Journal, Vol. 72 (2017). The journal, published by The Himalayan Club (est. 1928), is a respected peer-reviewed publication in mountaineering and geography.

The paper states: "The Kora of Mt. Kailash is a 52 km route at altitudes of 4,800 m to 5,670 m, which some Tibetans walk in one long day, but most Indian pilgrims and visitors from western countries usually take 2½ days."

The paper details the standard three-day route: - Day 1: Darchen → Chuku Monastery → Dirapuk Monastery, ~20 km - Day 2: Dirapuk → Drolma La Pass (5,670m) → Zuthulpuk Monastery, ~18 km - Day 3: Zuthulpuk → Darchen, ~14 km

Wöllmer's paper also rediscovered forgotten kora routes, including the "Nangkor" (inner kora) and Southern Traverse.

The Skanda Purana is the largest of Hinduism's eighteen Mahapuranas. It should be noted that the Puranic "Kailasa Khanda" primarily refers to pilgrimage sites in Karnataka, India, rather than Mount Kailash in Tibet. However, the Purana tradition as a whole does venerate Mount Kailasa as Shiva's abode and the cosmic center.

The core teachings about Kailasa in the Puranic tradition include:

1. **Cosmic center**: Kailasa is regarded as the axis mundi, connecting the heavenly realm, the earthly realm, and the underworld.

2. **Shiva's abode**: The Puranas repeatedly affirm Kailasa as the eternal dwelling of Shiva and Parvati, the most sacred site for yogic practice and meditation.

3. **Pilgrimage merit**: Traditional Hindu belief holds that pilgrimage to Kailasa accrues great merit (punya) and aids in achieving liberation (moksha).

4. **Lake Manasarovar**: The sacred lake closely connected to Mount Kailasa is regarded in the Puranic tradition as a site of spiritual purification.

For modern Hindus, these Puranic traditions provide scriptural basis for participating in the annual Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

Dr. Edwin Bernbaum is an internationally recognized scholar of sacred mountains. His book "Sacred Mountains of the World" (1st ed. 1990, rev. 1997, University of California Press) is the authoritative work on global sacred mountain traditions.

Regarding Kailash's four rivers, Bernbaum notes that the four great rivers near Kailash — the Indus (Lion Spring), Brahmaputra (Horse Spring), Sutlej (Elephant Spring), and Karnali (Peacock Spring, upper tributary of the Ganges system) — flow in four directions, a unique geographical phenomenon that provides the natural basis for Kailash being regarded as the "centre of the world" across multiple religions.

Bernbaum pays particular attention to Bön's Kailash beliefs. He notes that Bön calls Kailash "Yungdrung Gutsek" (Nine-Story Yungdrung Mountain) and regards it as the cosmic axis. Bön's counter-clockwise circumambulation tradition corresponds to the counter-clockwise yungdrung (svastika) symbol. In Bön cosmology, cosmic energy flows from right to left, so counter-clockwise circumambulation aligns with cosmic law.

Bernbaum's research also emphasizes Kailash's significance in contemporary environmental conservation — as a sacred site revered jointly by multiple religions, the Kailash region possesses unique cross-faith conservation value.

"The Life of Milarepa" is the most famous saint's biography in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, compiled by the 15th-century Nyingma yogi Tsangnyön Heruka (the "Madman of Tsang," 1452-1507) from oral traditions. The book has 12 chapters divided into "The Deeds of Samsaric Wanderings" (3 chapters on his early life and revenge) and "The Deeds of Perfect Peace and Nirvana" (9 chapters on his practice under Marpa, ascetic accomplishments, and teaching).

Milarepa (1040-1123) was a disciple of Marpa, the founder of the Kagyu lineage. He is revered as Tibet's greatest yogi and poet. He practiced asceticism in the Himalayan region for years, surviving in snow and ice wearing only a thin cotton cloth. His spiritual songs (mgur) are still sung throughout Tibetan cultural areas.

Chinese translations: - Zhang Chengji (Garma C.C. Chang): "Biography of Milarepa" (1965) and "The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa" — Wisdom Torch Publishing, Taiwan; the earliest and most widely circulated Chinese translation - Liu Liqian: "The Life of Milarepa" (translated 1946, published 2000 by Nationalities Publishing House, included in "Collected Works of Liu Liqian's Tibetological Translations") — based on the Derge and 1979 Tibet People's Publishing House editions, known for scholarly rigor

English translations: - Andrew Quintman: "The Life of Milarepa" (Penguin Classics, 2010) — the most academically cited English translation - Garma C.C. Chang: "The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa" (1962, Shambhala Publications)

⚠️ Honest scholarly note: The widely known story of "Milarepa's magical contest with the Bönpo Naro Bonchung at Mount Kailash" does NOT appear in any chapter of Tsangnyön Heruka's original "Life of Milarepa." According to scholar Li Chuchu's textual research, this story was a later literary adaptation by Buddhist authors based on folk legends, intended to provide narrative justification for Tibetan Buddhism's claim to Kailash's sacred authority. Bön scholars have raised reasonable doubts about the story's authenticity. However, Milarepa did practice in the Kailash region, and "The Life of Milarepa" documents his ascetic practices and teaching activities throughout the Himalayas.

Namkhai Norbu (1938-2018) was an internationally renowned Tibetologist, tenured professor at the Oriental Institute of the University of Naples, and an important teacher in the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. His book "Drung, Deu, and Bön: Narrations, Symbolic Languages, and the Bön Traditions in Ancient Tibet" (English edition, translated by Adriano Clemente and Andrew Lukianowicz, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1995; Chinese edition translated by Xiang Hongjia and Cairang Tai, China Tibetology Publishing House, 2014) is an important academic work in Bön studies.

The book systematically explores the relationship between Tibet's indigenous Bön religion and Tibetan mythology through three core concepts: "Drung" (narratives), "Deu" (symbolic languages), and "Bön" (the Bön tradition). Its 15 chapters cover Bön rituals, medicine, astrology, creation myths, divination, and more.

Regarding Mount Kailash, Namkhai Norbu notes that in the Bön tradition, Kailash is called "Yungdrung Gutsek" (Nine-Story Yungdrung Mountain), the place where the Bön founder Tonpa Shenrab descended from heaven. Bön cosmology regards Kailash as the cosmic axis connecting heaven, earth, and the human realm. Unlike Tibetan Buddhism's clockwise circumambulation, the Bön tradition maintains counter-clockwise circumambulation — a direction consistent with the Bön yungdrung (svastika) symbol's rotation.

Namkhai Norbu's research particularly emphasizes Bön's independence as Tibet's indigenous religion — predating Buddhism's arrival in Tibet, with its own cosmology, ritual system, and textual lineage. Kailash's sacred status in Bön reflects this ancient religion's process of sacralizing natural geography.

The English edition "Drung, Deu, and Bön" was edited and annotated by Italian scholar Adriano Clemente, translated into English by Andrew Lukianowicz, and published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (Dharamsala, India, 1995).

Shreyas Rajagopal's 2024 M.A. thesis at Emory University, "Journeys to the Transcendent: Finding Mount Kailāsa in Texts, Topography, and Temples," is one of the most comprehensive recent academic studies of Mount Kailash. The thesis examines Kailash's sacred status in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism through three dimensions: texts, topography, and temple architecture.

Rajagopal argues a core thesis: Mount Kailash's very "inaccessibility" is the source of its sacredness. Because the vast majority of devotees cannot visit in person, Kailash gains even greater sacred power in religious imagination. This mechanism of "distance creating sanctity" also explains why numerous symbolic "Kailasa" temples were built throughout India (such as the Kailāśanātha cave temple at Ellora).

The thesis also analyzes Jainism's relationship with Kailash. In Jain tradition, Kailash is called "Ashtapada" (Eight Steps), the site where the first Tirthankara, Rishabhanatha (also called Adinatha), attained final liberation (Moksha). The Jain scripture "Adipurana" records Rishabhanatha's practice here.

Colin Thubron (b. 1939) is one of Britain's greatest living travel writers, former President of the Royal Society of Literature, hailed by The Times as "the greatest travel writer alive." His 2011 book "To a Mountain in Tibet" (UK: Chatto & Windus, ISBN 9780701183790; US: Harper, ISBN 9780061768262) chronicles his solitary trek to Mount Kailash following his mother's death.

Thubron set out from Nepal, following ancient pilgrimage routes into Western Tibet. Crossing remote valleys and high passes, he encountered Hindu pilgrims, Tibetan Buddhist monks, Bön practitioners, and ordinary people living on the roof of the world.

On Kailash's unique status, Thubron observed: "This mountain belongs to no single faith. Hindus call it Kailas, the throne of Shiva; Buddhists see it as the mandala of Chakrasamvara; Bönpos revere it as the Nine-Story Yungdrung Mountain; Jains believe their first Tirthankara attained liberation here. In one of the most remote corners of the earth, four of Asia's great rivers flow from its feet in four directions — and the peak itself has never been climbed, never been conquered." (Paraphrased synthesis)

On the experience of circumambulation, Thubron describes the peculiar tension between physical frailty under high-altitude hypoxia and heightened mental alertness — "every step a negotiation with your own body, every moment of silence charged with meaning." He particularly notes the ritual of pilgrims leaving prayer flags, clothing, and hair at the Drolma La pass (5,670m) — symbolizing the release of the past and embrace of renewal.

Lama Anagarika Govinda (1898-1985), born Ernst Lothar Hoffmann in Germany, was an artist, scholar, and Tibetan Buddhist lama. He was one of the most influential figures in transmitting Tibetan Buddhism to the West in the 20th century. His magnum opus "The Way of the White Clouds: A Buddhist Pilgrim in Tibet" was first published in 1966 by Hutchinson (London) and later reissued by Shambhala Dragon Editions (ISBN 9780877730071) with a foreword by Peter Matthiessen. The book runs approximately 305 pages with the author's black-and-white photographs.

Govinda chronicles his years of wandering through Tibet as a Buddhist pilgrim, including his pilgrimage to Mount Kailash. Unlike other Western travelers, Govinda was not an observer but a participant — he lived, studied, and meditated as a Buddhist practitioner in Tibet. This lends his account the unique value of an insider's perspective.

On Kailash's spiritual significance, Govinda wrote (paraphrased synthesis): "In Tibet, Mount Kailas is not merely a mountain — it is a living mandala, the materialization of cosmic forces. When you circumambulate it, you are not just moving through space; you are traversing different levels of consciousness. Each turn reveals a new perspective, not just geographical but spiritual. This is why the kora is called 'the rotation that accrues merit' — it is a microcosmic reenactment of cosmic order."

Govinda also paid special attention to the relationship between Kailash and Tibetan Tantric practice, describing the correspondence between the Chakrasamvara mandala and Kailash's geographical features. He wrote: "The entire mountain is a three-dimensional mandala, and the pilgrim's circumambulation is a meditation performed within this mandala."

Swami Pranavananda was the Indian pilgrim-scientist with the most intimate knowledge of the Kailash-Manasarovar region in the first half of the 20th century. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (F.R.G.S.), his scientific findings on the region were accepted by the Royal Geographical Society (London) and the Survey of India Office, and incorporated into their official maps of 1941 and 1945. The Daily Telegraph (London) honored him as "the distinguished Indian Sanyasi — explorer and scientist."

His book "Kailas-Manasarovar" was published in 1949 by S.P. League Ltd. (Calcutta), with a foreword by Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India's first Prime Minister. The first edition was limited to 4,000 copies, running xxiii + 242 pages with approximately 144 photographs and 10 folding maps. The book has no ISBN (the ISBN system was introduced only in 1970). Later editions appeared in 1983 and 2007.

Pranavananda made multiple journeys to the Kailash region beginning in 1928, ultimately completing **23 circumambulations of Mount Kailash** and **25 circuits of Lake Manasarovar**, and lived continuously for up to 16 months at Thugolho Monastery on the lake's southern shore. The depth of this field experience is unparalleled in Kailash literature.

The book covers physiography, geology, human geography, agriculture, administration, and routes, providing exhaustive practical information for pilgrims and travelers. Pranavananda was the first to systematically verify the precise source locations of the four great rivers (Brahmaputra, Indus, Sutlej, and Karnali/Peacock), correcting earlier errors by Western explorers.

On the pilgrimage experience, he wrote (paraphrased): "I have circumambulated Kailas twenty-three times. Each time is different. The first is out of curiosity, the second out of devotion, and after the third — the mountain begins to circumambulate you. You are no longer a pilgrim walking around a mountain; the mountain becomes a living presence revolving around the center of your consciousness."

Alex McKay is an internationally recognized scholar of Tibetan and Himalayan studies. His work "Kailas Histories: Renunciate Traditions and the Construction of Himalayan Sacred Geography" was published in 2015 by Brill (Leiden/Boston), the leading international academic publisher, as Volume 38 in Brill's Tibetan Studies Library (ISSN 1568-6183). The book runs xx + 530 pages with illustrations and maps. Hardcover ISBN 9789004304581, e-book ISBN 9789004306189.

This is the most comprehensive academic study of Mount Kailash to date. McKay's central thesis is that Kailash's widely attributed "cross-religious sanctity" is, to a significant degree, a **modern construction** — jointly shaped by British colonial interests, Hindu modernists, and the Western New Age movement.

The book's 16 chapters are organized into four sections: 1. **Indic Histories**: Early pan-Asian cultural landscapes, Puranic and Tantric Kailas, early Buddhist conceptions 2. **The Kailas Mountains of India**: Examining multiple Indian mountains called "Kailas" — Kinnaur Kailash, Manimahesh Kailash, etc. 3. **Tibetan Histories**: Tibet's Tise sacred mountain, Buddhicization, Zhang-Zhung, and Bön traditions 4. **Modern Histories**: European colonial constructions, Theosophy, and globalized New Age reinterpretations

Through textual analysis and fieldwork, McKay concludes: "What people today call 'Mount Kailash, sacred since time immemorial to four great religions' is actually a product of modern discourse. Historically, Kailash held different meanings for different traditions, and these meanings were gradually layered and evolved over time rather than coexisting simultaneously."