Mount Kailash Pilgrimage - Great Journeys

By Tom Thumb, Posted Dec 10, 2006

Pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet

The pilgrimage to Mount Kailash is one of the oldest and most important in the world, dating back thousands of years and considered sacred not only to Hindus but also to Jains, Tibetan Buddhists and followers of the Bon religion (who?) – so why not you too?

Making a circuit of the mountain is considered to bring great divine favour and fortune and some endeavour to do the 32 miles in a single day. Others consider walking only for the weak and instead prostrate themselves around the mountain, laying flat out on the ground and then beginning again from the mark left by their outstretched fingertips.

The only real problem is that pilgrimage to the holy site was interrupted by the Chinese invasion of Tibet and it was only in 1980 that they began allowing a limited number of Hindus to make the trip. Tibet is a very mountainous, porous country though and, with a decent guide and an intrepid sense of adventure, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to make it there. The other pilgrims would only be the more impressed by your determination.

Each of the religions has their own stories (the Hindus contend that the mountain is the lingum of Shiva and the lake below the yoni of his consort, Parvati. All religions are agreed that stepping on the actual slope of Kailash is sure to bring swift retribution, even death. So be warned.


Tom Thumb’s personal website
and you can find him on Facebook, too.

Hand to Mouth to India Hand to Mouth to India book cover

Hand to Mouth to India is the tale of when I hitchhiked from England to India at the age of 20 with no money at all.


Passing through England, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and finally arriving in Goa where I slept on the beach all season and wrote the book.


Buy it on the Kindle or on the Nook

Tales of a Road Junky road junky travel book

Tales of a Road Junky covers the last 12 years of my journeys around the world. telling the tale of coming of age in the Goa trance scene, rescuing foreign prisoners in Delhi, selling fake Rolex watches in the street in Tokyo, getting into trouble with the medicine mafia in Brazil and delving deep into the heart of Israelity in the Promised Land.


Buy it on the Kindle or on the Nook

Bozo and the Storyteller

Bozo and the Storyteller book cover

Imagine you, the room you’re in, the planet and everyone in it were all just a Story, figments of imagination in the mind of a Storyteller. But with Hoomanity set on self-destruction, the Storyteller’s health begins to fail and if he should die, what would become of the Story that he tells?


All hope for our world lies in the hands of a 9 year old boy and a foolish Bloon…


Buy on the Kindle

Read More

12 Indestructible Tips for Staying on the Road

At Road Junky we believe travel is more than a two week holiday or a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. The open road is a lifestyle in and of itself that can wash ...

Continue reading >>

Granada, Nicaragua, the Backpacker Invasion

The road through Nicaragua is like a tongue of tarmac squeezing through a rolling landscape of green; not the dense vegetation of the jungle that suffocates all view but rather ...

Continue reading >>

Overland Through the Ex-Soviet Republics in an Old Army Truck?

Neither had we. Then we bumped into the guys at Soviet Truck and they got us thinking about this vast tract of land which for most travelers is an unknown ...

Continue reading >>