Decoding Mount Kailash: The Holy Mountain of Monks and Fairies
A traditional song from the Ali region declares that Gondis is the holy land of monks and Mampang Lake is the paradise of fairies: "གངས་ཏི་སེ་གྲུབ་པའི་གནས་མཆོག་ཡིན། མཚོ་མ་ཕམ་ལྷ་མོའི་དག་ཞིང་ཡིན།" Among the visual works cited is a photograph titled "Mount Kailash, Tibet," taken by Kenro Izu in 2000 and held in the Rubin Museum collection, alongside "Shiva and his Family on the Kailasa Mountain," a late 18th-century piece from the British Museum. Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) created the 1932 painting "The Road to Keilasay Snow Mountain," which belongs to the Roerich Museum, while an 18th-century "Panoramic View of Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar Sacred Site" remains in a private collection. An excerpt from "Kailash: A Journey to the Sacred Mountain of Tibet" (1989) by Russell Johnson and Kerry Moran describes "The People Heading to Mount Kailash for Pilgrimage." The collection also features a pilgrimage guide commissioned by the Zhigong Kagyu sect, whose partial view shows a monk and layperson offering alms in tents; some scholars suggest this secular figure may be Jukme Tenzin, eldest son of Tibetan king Palden Lhundrup, who governed Ali and sponsored several pilgrimages in that role.
An ancient manuscript illustration, taken from *The Bon religion of Tibet* (1995), bears the title “Kailas: The Reincarnation of the Founder of Bon Buddhism, Tonpa Shenrab.” The newly appointed nobles who had submitted to the king sang the following lines, as recorded in the ancient Tibetan scriptures *Biographies of the Successive Kings*, unearthed in Dunhuang: “At the foot of the Disi Mountain, wild deer and wild mules thrive; by the side of the Mapang Lake, wild geese and wild ducks make their home.” Through these animals, they were referring to the Tibetan subjects—the followers.
The Gangdisi Mountain had already carried both political and religious weight before Buddhism arrived in Tibet, with its renown as the "King of Sacred Mountains" spreading across the entire region. Those who showed defiance were thus cautioned: "Wild deer and wild mules, do not act insolently, for the Disi Mountain will swallow you up; wild geese and wild ducks, do not act insolently, for the Mapang Lake will destroy you.
According to Bon literature, Kailas represents an everlasting, immutable sacred space—the nine-tiered Mount Meru of the spiritual world, the cosmic axis from which the forebears came down to earth. Meanwhile, the origin of the term "Disi" (ཏི་སེ་) applied to this mountain in Tibetan Buddhism is debated: certain academics propose a Sanskrit derivation, yet an examination of the surrounding cultural milieu shows that "Disi" is genuinely Tibetan, signifying "unique" or "treasure," as recorded in Tibetan dictionaries.
In the British Museum's collection is "Shiva and His Family at the Kailasa Snow Mountain," a mid-19th-century work titled Kailasa. Within the Himalayan cultural context, "snow mountains" have long stood as a symbol of a hidden paradise, and the most renowned among them is "Mount Kailash" (कैलास；ཀཻ་ལ་ཤ་). North of Mount Meru lies a range of snow-capped peaks, and among these is Mount Kailash, a snow mountain that appears crystal-like.
For Shaivite scholars, the "Kailash" is seen as mirroring the full cycle of creation, destruction, and renewal of the cosmic order. In Shaivite narratives, the venomous primary deity of Shaivism dwells in this cool region, while atop the mountain, in the palace, reside his wife, the Snow Mountain Goddess Parvati; his son Ganesha (the elephant-headed god); and his mount Nandi, who is typically portrayed as a white bull in human form.
Jainism (རྒྱལ་བ་པ་) is not unknown in Tibet, and Tibetan scholars have incorporated this tradition’s descriptions of Kailash into their accounts of the holy sites of Mount Kailash. Likewise, in Jain scriptures, Kailash is regarded as the site of enlightenment within the central space (मध्यलोक), where eminent sages and ancestors of the Jain tradition reached enlightenment.
The belief that "Mount Kailash" must exist somewhere on Earth is deeply held. Over time, this conviction, shaped by shared imagination and historical processes, forged a link between that name and the actual Mount Kailash. Because of its distinctive and intricate landscape, this mountain came to be the favored choice among many religious traditions.
In his 2015 book *Kailas Histories*, scholar Alex McKay poses a question: why do so many different religions regard Mount Kailash as their most significant sacred mountain? This inquiry appears alongside the 1989 work *Kailasa: A Pilgrimage to the Sacred Mountain of Tibet* by Russell Johnson and Kerry Moran, from which the excerpt "Gazing at the Snow-capped Mount Kailash" is drawn, as well as the book cover of *The History of Kailas*, written by Alex McKai.
From a rational perspective, before visiting Mount Kailash, I found it difficult to imagine the summit crowded with so many deities, an audience member from the West said.
The relatively recent term "Mount Kailash"—originating from the Tibetan "Kang Rinpoche," which means precious snow mountain—accounts for the rise of the "Kailash cultural sphere": it is precious, so imagination and reality converge; it is cherished as precious, so structure and imagery align; it is inscribed as precious, so memory and consensus unite. Yet when I faced that snow-capped peak, all my questions faded into irrelevance, for it was a setting that stirred deep thought and limitless wonder.
The Mandala of Mahavairocana ("Sixty-Two Deity Mandala of Mahavairocana"), dating from the mid-to-late 15th century, is held in the Rubin Museum. We yearn to live permanently within magnificent landscapes. Buddhism, originating in South Asia, has incorporated the concept of "Kechara"; the uniquely Tibetan tradition of Tibetan Buddhism naturally also considers the earlier Tibetan descriptions of
Consequently, within the Buddhist context, Mount Kailash serves as both the sacred object that embodies the philosophical system and the holy land where deities abide. The scriptural portrayal of Mount Meru has been mapped onto this particular snowy peak, which is believed to be the residence of the victorious Vajrasattva and Vajravāraḥī.
In Tibet, the belief has taken shape that this snow mountain is the abode of Vajrasattva's "essence" and the hidden sacred city, especially as other traditions continue to empower Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar. Yet scholars such as Sakya Pandita (1182-1251) and Ngawang Drakpa (1348-1412) have argued that the sacred lake of that snow mountain found in the scriptures is not Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar; Sakya, in his "Discriminating the Three Vows" text, even posed several doubts.
From the Ruben Museum collection, the 18th-century artwork titled "Sixteen Arhats and Two Attendants in a Landscape Setting: Offerings to the Ascetic" (Arhat Stable) depicts snow-capped mountains and a sacred lake in the distance. A nearly identical description of the venerable Angaja (ཡན་ལག་འབྱུང་) appears in Tibetan texts on "Arhat worship": "The supreme Angaja, residing in the sacred land of Ke-ra-sa on the snow-capped mountain, is accompanied by one thousand three hundred Arhats, holding incense burners and dusters.
In Tibetan artistic tradition, the snow-covered peaks inhabited by the Arhats are portrayed identically to Mount Meru. The "Ke-ra-sa," home of Angaja, is regarded by people as Tibet's counterpart to Mount Meru. The Arhats who live in that remote area are venerated as elders who achieved enlightenment within their present lifetime and will not undergo rebirth in samsara. Surrounding the mountain are merchants from foreign lands, Brahmin hermits, rulers and ministers of guardian deities, and pilgrims from the East arriving to present offerings.
On Mount Meru's sacred landscape stands a palace of the Arhats, where pilgrims still come to offer their respects, while above their pure realm, Amitabha Buddha keeps watch. A ritual to invoke the deity is presently being conducted by the followers. This passage draws from "Kailash: A Pilgrimage to the Sacred Mountain of Tibet" by Russell Johnson and Kerry Moran, 1989 King of the Sacred Mountain, Center of the Universe, and is rendered into English from Sorang Wangqing's blog.