The Sacred Mountain (Travellers and Pilgrims at Mount Kailas in Western Tibet and The Great Universal Symbol of the Sacred Mountain)

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 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.

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 Bonpo, the followers of the indigenous religion of Tibet, it is the giant crystal on which their founder, Thonpa Shenrab, descended to earth from the skies.

For more than a millennium, Buddhist, Hindu and Bonpa pilgrims have been visiting this Throne of the Gods and performing pious circumabulation around it. John Snelling recounts their difficult and dangerous pilgrimages and analyzes the spiritual significance of Kailas - and of sacred mountains in general. He also retells the tales of the handful of Western travellers who reached Kailas between 1715 and 1949 - an exclusive club of intrepid explorers, mountaineers, big game hunters and officials. Then in 1984 the Chinese so the tales of a new wave of contemporary travellers have in this completely revised and enlarge edition been added to those of their great prec1ursors.

The new edition of this acclaimed travel book is particularly indispensable for all those wishing to visit Mount Kailas, for it contains a comprehensive Guide for Travellers as well as up-to-date maps. For the armchair traveller there is much to absorb and thrill too - not least the lavish array of photographs, many in colour.

About the Author

John Snelling was born in Wales in 1943 and brought up there as well as in London and Canterbury. After graduating in both English and Philosophy, he lectured at Maidstone College of Art for several years before leaving to travel to the East, where began a serious interest in Oriental religion and philosophy.

From 1980 to 1984 he was General Secretary of the Buddhist Society and worked with the late Christmas Humphreys Q. C., who founded the Society in 1924. for 8 years from 1980 he edited The Middle Way, the journal of the Buddhist Society. It was founded in 1926 and its distinguished previous editors include the late Alan Watts, whose early writings John Snelling has edited. In addition, he has worked extensively for BBC radio and television as both scriptwriter and presenter. For recreation he enjoys watercolour painting in the traditional English manner.

John Snelling has one daughter. He is currently a member of the Sharpham North Community in Devon.

Foreword

Amongst other sites of natural splendour, Mount Kailas and its environs have a special symbolic value for Tibetans. The region has been an undisputed part of Tibet since the emergence of the Tibetan nation, while the sacred peak has equally long been a focus of spiritual inspiration. For the early Tibetans who were Bonpos, the area represented the place where Shenrab Miwoche, the founder of their tradition, was born and gave teachings. Later it became an object of Buddhist veneration. Legends associate it with the Buddha and his immediate followers, with Guru Rinpoche, one of the pioneers of Buddhism in Tibet, and with Tibet's renowned saint, the yogi Milarepa. From the tantric view point too, many regard it as the abode of Chakrasamvara.

For centuries Tibetans have made arduous pilgrimages, some time the entire breadth of the country, to glimpse the holy peak and perform religious practices at its foot. The fact that Hindus and Jains from India, who hold Mount Kailas in equal respect, albeit for different reasons, were free to pursue their own pilgrimages, is indicative of the brotherly relations that always persisted between India and Tibet.

With the tragedy that overtook Tibet in recent years such practices became severely restricted and the surrounding temples and monuments were badly damaged, as in the rest of the country. However, lately, as conditions have been slightly relaxed and Tibetans permitted at least the outward trappings of religious practice, they have begun to journey to Kalias once more. Despite the hardships involved, the monasteries and stupas are being rebuilt and people are again engaging in religious practices there.

These encouraging signs reveal the enduring fascination of the mountain, the indomitable spirit of the Tibetan people, and the continuing strength; of their religious outlook.

Readers of John Snelling's book, The Sacred Mountain will find accounts o foreign travellers and pilgrims to Mount Kailas. From these they may gain some sense of the awe-inspiring physical presence of the peak itself, and the spiritual ideals that lead pilgrims to it.