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Pilgrims' Progress: Visitors prostrate themselves at the site of Darboche's Saga Dawa flagpole, erected annually to celebrate the birth of Buddha.
"Kailas is held sacred by Buddhist pilgrims who reveal their faith by uniting their hands above their head, touching them to their heart, and, as the three woman here show, spreading their bodies across the hallowed Earth.
"Often dressed in colorful woolen and sheepskin robes, Tibetan pilgrims further link themselves to Kailas by offering Buddhist prayer flags at auspicious sites along the kora, the circumambulatory route around the mountain.
"A similar harmony exists among Kailas's various visitors. Buddhists express their faith by circling the mountain clockwise, while Bonpos—adherents of Tibet's indigenous animus tradition—circle it counterclockwise. Some prayerfully prostrate across the frozen ground, yet others capture its beauty and express their respect by taking photographs and reveling in the ancient customs preserved at this holy mountain that tradition claims to be the center of the world. Like most pilgrims, I traveled clockwise."
—Writer Ian Baker
Photo by David Samuel Robbins
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