Modi may make a trip to Kailash Manasarovar

 India and China are exploring the possibility of a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s to Kailash Manasarovar when he travels to China in May.

Though it is early in the day, officials are working on the possibility of a Modi visit to the popular Hindu pilgrimage destination in the Himalayas if the loose ends can be tied up in the next few months. A new route to Kailash from Nathu La (Sikkim border) is likely to be inaugurated during the prime minister's visit.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday gave the prime minister's travel dates to Chinese authorities. In the presence of Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, the two sides exchanged notes on the modalities of additional route to Kailash Manasarovar in 2015.

For the last few months, officials from two sides were working on the new route via Nathu La – announced in the joint statement after the September summit meeting between Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping – efforts are being made to accommodate a visit by Modi.

Indian ambassador Ashok K Kantha visited Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in October and met Jiang Jie, vice chairman of the Government of TAR in Lhasa. They deliberated on the options to open an additional route for pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Manasarovar through the Nathula pass.

Hoping to open up the new route in the summer of 2015, the two officials traveled to Yadong, Shigatse, Renqinggang and Nathula as well as places associated with pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in Ali Prefecture in October.

Sacred to Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, the journey to Mount Kailash and Manasarovar lake, located high in the Himalaya and at the remote southwestern corner of the Tibetan autonomous region, is usually undertaken from Uttarakhand via Lipulekh Pass or overland from Nepal.

While the Nepal route takes 10 days, the arduous trekking option via Uttarakhand takes 27 days.  The new route would allow pilgrims to be driven all along, travelling first from Gangtok in Sikkim to Shigatse in Tibet from where they can take vans and buses on the existing road to Manasarovar and Kailash directly.