Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday expressed his gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jinping, for announcing a new travel route to Mount Kailash, the holy pilgrimage site located in Tibet. For HIndus, Kailash is an important place that is said to be the abode of Lord Shiva. The new route will pass through the Nathu La border route in the north-eastern Indian state of Sikkim, and is in addition to the current route through the state of Uttarkhand.
Modi had earlier promised residents of the state of Gujarat, while he was Chief Minister there, that he would have an additional route created. Gujarat sends the maximum number of pilgrims to Kailash every year – 193 traveled from the state in 2012, of a total of 910. The new route is much safer, though longer, but is motorable throughout, as compared to the old route which is hazardous, and requires heavy trekking.
Modi had broached the subject with his Chinese counterpart during a meeting in July in Brazil, when they met during a BRICS conference. “The new route offers many benefits. It makes Kailash Mansarovar accessible by a motorable road, which is especially beneficial to the older pilgrims. It offers a safer alternative in the rainy season, makes the pilgrimage shorter in duration, and will enable a much higher number of pilgrims to go there,” Modi said in a statement.
Not everyone is happy with the news though. Chief Minister Harish Rawat of the state of Uttarkhand, expressed his displeasure with the new route and said that it was against Hindu religion to travel by the new route. Rawat, has much to lose from the new route, since his state no longer has a monopoly over the trekking route to Kailash. “Agreement with China over an alternative route to Mansarovar through Nathula goes against religious sentiments of people throughout the country as it is not in keeping with the centuries-old scriptures which recognise only the traditional route for the pilgrimage passing through Uttarakhand,” Rawat said in a statement. He had been opposed to the new route ever since its first proposal by Modi at the BRICS meet.