Kailash Mansarovar Yatra

The route

What defines it

1. 01

   Bath in Mansarovar and the 52 km kora of Kailash

2. 02

   Dolma La pass at about 5,630 m

3. 03

   MEA routes: Lipulekh (since 1981) and Nathu La (since 2015)

4. 04

   Suspended 2020–2024; resumed June 2025 with 750 yatris

01The lake of the mind

Manasa sarovara means the lake born of the mind: the katha says Bhagwan Brahma created it from his manas. The Valmiki Ramayana, telling the young Rama about the rivers, says the Sarayu flows out of the Manasa lake, and Kalidasa in the Meghaduta sends his cloud-messenger past Kailash and the golden lotuses of Manasa. Beside it lies the darker Rakshas Tal, where Ravana is said to have done tapas to Shiva. Pilgrims bathe at Mansarovar, often at night to watch for the lights that are believed to be devas bathing, then go round the mountain on the 52 km kora, crossing the Dolma La at about 5,630 metres.

02Closed and reopened

For centuries pilgrims from Kumaon and Garhwal walked to Kailash over the Lipulekh, Mana and Niti passes with Bhotia traders. Swami Pranavananda made the trip many times from 1928 and wrote the standard guide, Kailas-Manasarovar, in 1949. The border war of 1962 closed the way. After talks between India and China the Ministry of External Affairs reopened the yatra in 1981 by the Lipulekh pass, with the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police looking after the batches; a second route by Nathu La in Sikkim followed in 2015. The yatra was suspended from 2020, first by the pandemic and then by the strain between the two countries.

03The 2025 yatra

In 2025 the two governments agreed to resume it. About 5,000 people applied and 750 were chosen by computerised draw, in five batches of 50 by Lipulekh and ten batches of 50 by Nathu La. The first Nathu La batch crossed on 20 June 2025, and the Lipulekh batches began entering Tibet in July, with the last due back in late August. On the Lipulekh route yatris walk and drive through Dharchula and Gunji, cross into Tibet at the pass, and go by Taklakot to the lake and to Darchen, the base of the kora. Many more Indians go each year through private operators by way of Nepal, which is costlier and not run by the Ministry.

Great masters

In the texts

• Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda
• Meghaduta of Kalidasa
• Swami Pranavananda, Kailas-Manasarovar (1949)

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