5246 x 3490 px | 44,4 x 29,5 cm | 17,5 x 11,6 inches | 300dpi
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On the remote plateau of Western Tibet, beyond the Himalayas and nudging the border with Nepal, there stands a sacred mountain. Perpetually coated in snow, with a 6, 714-metre peak as rounded as an ice cream, Mount Kailash remains unconquered because, to climb it would be a sacrilege to the Buddhist and Hindu faiths. Tibetans regard Mount Kailash as Kang Rinpoche, 'jewel of snow', the physical manifestation of their mythical cosmic mountain Sumeru, on which they believe is sited their heaven. Here lives a wrathful manifestation of Sakyamuni, the historical Buddha. Hindus believe the peak to be home of Shiva, third god of the Hindu trinity - the destroyer and transformer of life. It is the navel of the Earth, axis of the universe and bears four faces of jewels and gold. Four of Asia's rivers: the Ganges; Indus; Sutlej and Tsango-Brahmaputra have their sources within 100 kilometres of the mountain, and the four sides of Mount Kailash match the points of the compass. One side is slashed by a swastika, the ancient Buddhist symbol of spiritual strength and luck. Thousands of Buddhists and Hindus circumambulate round the base of Mount Kailash on a religious 53-kilometre kora to accumulate merit and wipe away the sins of a lifetime. The aim is to complete three circuits, though the determined clock up the auspicious number of 13 (the ultimate number is 108, a feat which delivers the pilgrim straight to nirvana). Some Tibetan monks and nuns wear leather skirts and slip leather pads on their arms to prostrate around the entire length of the kora, an act of utter devotion that takes up to a month to complete. Tibetans, accustomed to the average altitude of 4, 500-metres dash through the kora in a day, while Bön followers (Bön is the religion in Tibet predating Buddhism) perform it anti-clockwise. Women wear long wool chubas, head-dresses of turquoise nuggets and necklaces of jade. Fingers count the notches on rosary beads. Prayer wheels are spun rapidly. Cubes of hard, yak's c
