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The Holy Mountain Kangrinboqe
Best time to go: on April 15 of the Tibetan calendar

Ngari is also famous for its holy mountain and lake. The holy mountain, Kangrinboqe, is the main peak of the Kangdese Mountains. About 6,714 meters above sea level, the mountain is powerful and imposing, holding a sacred position in many religions. For hundreds of years, Kangrinboqe has attracted numerous religious followers and travelers with its many mystical stories and legends. Thousands of Chinese, overseas religious devotees, and tourists make pilgrimages or sightsee here every year. These devout followers usually take a year or longer to reach the sacred mountain, kowtowing all the way from afar.

Sumeru Mountain, the place where, according to legend, Sakyamuni performed rites to save the souls of the dead, is regarded as the center of the world in Buddhism. It is also the hall of Siva in Hinduism. People usually dismiss it as nothing than a mythical place, a mountain in conception only. However, Sumeru Mountain is actually a real mountain. It is the Kangrinboqe.

Abhidharma-kosa Sastra describes a journey which, after going northward from India and crossing nine snow mountains, led to a "large snow mountain." It is Kangrinboqe, the main peak of the Kangdese Mountains, extending hundreds of kilometers. Kangrinboqe in Tibetan means "treasure of the snow mountains." The holy mountain looks like an olive rising to the sky. Its peak resembles a colorful hat surrounded by eight lotus pedals, and its body seems to be made of crystal, looking like a jade-inlaid ice sculpture of extremely skillful craftsmanship. Legend has it that when Sakyamuni was still living in this world, Buddha, gods, human beings, Asura (a kind of evil spirit in ancient Indian mythology) and musicians in Heaven gathered around the holy mountain. The gathering took place in the year of horse.

It is said that pilgrims can wash away their lifetime sins after traveling once around the mountain; they can be exempt from the sufferings in Hell during the 500 samsara if they travel ten times around the mountain; and, finally, the pilgrims can become Buddhas during their lifetime and go to Heaven after death if they circle the mountain a hundred times. If the pilgrims go around the mountain in the year of horse, which was when Sakyamuni was born, they can acquire a-dozen-fold charitable and pious deeds, which equal circling the mountain thirteen times during other years. For hundreds of years, pilgrims have come in a continuous stream to the mountain, which has taken deep root in Tibetan religion, history, and culture. Mystical and fascinating, it is a mountain of spirit, culture, and belief, a combination of man and divinity, and man and nature. Many Tibetan religious followers enshrine and worship the picture of Kangrinboqe together with the figure of Buddha in their homes. Kangrinboqe is a symbol, not only of natural beauty, but also of a belief.

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