Geographic Expeditions:

Dates:
17 May 04 - 11 Jun 04
  

The center of the cosmos for nearly a billion Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists, Tibet's Mount Kailash is perhaps the most revered place on the planet. "Kailash opens the mind to the cosmos around it, evoking a sense of infinite space," writes Edwin Bernbaum in Sacred Mountains of the World.

One of the most sensitive and acute beholders of Kailash is Bob Thurman, holder of the Je Tsongkhapa Chair of Indo-Tibetan studies at Columbia, much-published writer, founder of Tibet House, one of the world's ranking experts on Tibetan Buddhism, a great champion of Tibetan culture, and a marvelously energetic and boon travel mate.

Bob has made the Kailash pilgrimage with Geographic Expeditions, a number of times and the new itinerary will give travllers on this tour an extraordinary amount of time in and around Kailash and the sacred lakes Rakas Tal and Manasarovar ("The Lake Created in the Mind of God," so revered that even such a skeptic as Nehru wrote of being "filled with regret that I would never reach Kailash and Manasarovar."

Geographic Expeditions make the beautiful and spiritually penetrating pilgrimage, or parikarama, around Kailash in the company of cheerful pilgrims from all over Central Asia. Ending the parikarama on Sagadawa (the most auspicious day in the Tibetan calendar) celebrating the day that Gautam Buddha was born, reached enlightenment and died.

The last camp is by the 15,000-foot Manasarovar Lake, where, Hindus believe, consciousness itself erupted into the universe. Driving down to Nepal we end our trip with a day in Kathmandu.

Article first appeared on www.geoex.com. For more informaiton, please visit their web site.