Noteworthy Landmark: Mount Kailash Through the Ages
A 2020 photograph by Peyanbojack bears the title "Guidance." Housed in the Rubin Museum is "Portrait of Shenrab: Middle Age," created in the mid-19th century. That work’s detail depicts the master widely accepting disciples while preaching the Four Gates in the Gangdise Mountains. Meanwhile, "The Goddess Jagadatri," illustrated by Krishnahari Das in 1880, represents Jagaddhatri, the foremost goddess of the eastern South Asian coastal regions. She is frequently described as the enigmatic manifestation of Durga. The radiant snow-covered peak of Kailash is visible far off.
In the Rubin Museum collection, there is a mid-18th century painting titled "Biography of Milarepa: Middle Age," in which Buddha is depicted as "rengay." The partial image above shows Milarepa and Naropa engaged in a ritualistic contest, a scene that references the Tibetan tradition of "rengay." Throughout the history of human belief—where "belief" encompasses more than just religion—the struggle known as "The Battle for Sacred Sites" has persisted. To contend for these sacred sites is to hold power over their interpretation, the rights to pilgrimage, and the authority to use them.
In the local narrative of the 'Gangs Rinpoche landscape group,' scholars inevitably encounter the tale of 'Buddha defeating demons.' This story, though grounded in reality, has been embellished by later generations, with chronological and geographical distortions, so that its assertions no longer match the facts. Memorials marking this same event are found simultaneously in disparate settings. Conversely, the very act of contestation bestows a distinctive quality upon these 'sacred sites' in the opposite manner.
Three parts fact mixed with seven parts imagination produced the account of Milarepa (1040-1123) and Naropa (ན་རོ་བོན་ཆུང་) contending: the Shaivites vanquished the demons dwelling in the snowy mountains, early Bon practitioners subdued other groups, and Buddhists compelled Bon practitioners to give up the sacred site during the conflict.
The story's first appearance is in the Third Karmapa's (1284-1339) writings, yet during the next century neither the Karma Kagyu teaching histories nor disciple-authored texts make any reference to it. In the Nepalese hills, the "original texts" community does include a "contending" plot, but its details differ from today's popular accounts; the specific narrative of "Buddhism winning" seems to have emerged only after the later Tibetan master Longchenpa (1452-1507) produced his writings.
The Rubin Museum counts two of these works in its collection: "The Fourth Red Hat Lama: Biography of Quzha Yixi" (late 16th century) and "The lineage of Bamboo Ba Gaju: Guo Cangba" (late 19th century). Dating to the fifteenth century, "The Founder of the Zhigong Kagyu School: A Song of Praise to Jiten Gong" belongs to a private collection. The practice of circumambulating the sacred mountain and lake had already been set by local religious communities well before large numbers of Buddhists began undertaking pilgrimages to Mount Kailash.
Mount Kailash was regarded by the early Kagyu sects as a sacred place for spiritual practice, largely because Milarepa, an exemplary practitioner, had performed solitary retreat there. Even though later scriptures indicate that Guru Padmasambhava subdued demons in that area and the South Asian scholar Atisha dwelled at the mountain's base, a notable Buddhist tradition of pilgrimage to Mount Kailash arose only in the 12th century.
By the 15th century, dozens of monasteries and thousands of meditation caves had appeared around Mount Kailash, and military and caravan escorts for pilgrims were commonplace. The charismatic Tibetan lama Jigten Sumgön (འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་མགོན་; 1143–1217), of the Drikung Kagyu lineage, required his disciples to perform three retreats at the three sacred mountains—including Mount Kailash—and sent out nearly ten thousand disciples.
During her repeated pilgrimages to Mount Kailash, the female practitioner Agyel Khandro (1839-1953) beheld the majestic spectacle: "Buddhist monks and laymen, kings and ministers, thousands of tents, and continuous caravans." Drawing on what they encountered and observed during these holy journeys, scholars readily write down pilgrimage narratives.
Within Tibetan culture, the “mountain-lake faith” has developed into its own system, where Gangdise and Lake Manasarovar together form a classic pairing. From a late 19th-century private collection, the following appear together: the phrase “Purify the sacred lake,” the deity reference “The Deity of our religion: Spajem【Queen of the Universe】” (སྲིད་པའི་རྒྱལ་མོ་), and the work titled “The South Asian Monk Cleansed by Bathing in Lake Manasarovar.” This material comes from “Kailash: A Pilgrimage to the Sacred Mountain of Tibet” by Russell Johnson and Kerry Moran (1989).
In Tibetan Buddhism, Lake Manasarovar is held to be the soul of the entire Shangri-La region and of the whole Tibetan area. Meanwhile, its storytelling—under the name 'undefeated jade lake,' the direct translation of Manasarovar—has, like the earlier narrative of Gangdise and Kyersa, gone through a development from local beliefs to imported fantasies.
Hidden within the lake's world are four types of treasure troves: the world's treasure trove, the soul treasure trove of deities, the immortal nectar trove, and the trove of wisdom of the teachings. According to existing classics, that world comprises three to six layers, where countless aquatic beings gather.
Lake Manasarovar, located beside Gangdise, has Lake Rakshastal (ལག་ངར་མཚོ་/ལག་ནག་མཚོ་) alongside it. That lake originally denoted a body of water where deities dwell permanently, and which heroes and spiritual aspirants strive toward as a "lake of consciousness". After South Asian concepts and later Lake Anavatapta (མ་དྲོས་མཚོ་) were incorporated into Tibetan culture, the local sacred lake came to be portrayed as a paradise protected by dragon clans within the Buddhist world. Adjacent to Lake Manasarovar, another lake called Rangojie (ལག་ངར་མཚོ་/ལག་ནག་མཚོ་) also exists.
The deity Sipajium resides in this lake, which is known as the Sacred Silver Lake (མུ་ལེ་མཚོ་) in Tibetan Buddhist classics, even though in the South Asian context it is disparagingly called the Lake of Demons (राक्षसताल).
Apart from the various meanings of the word "Des" (ཏི་སེ་) mentioned in the preceding article, certain Buddhist scriptures also refer to it as a "protective water peak". This "protective water" denotes the guarding of the four famous rivers that spring from "one mountain and two lakes". Separately, the 18th-century work "Ganden Podrang and Lake Namtso Sacred Site Panorama", from a private collection, includes a detail called "Source of Four Rivers" with "Dragon Girl [Can be associated with local rum]" dating to the late 18th century, also from a private collection.
According to the existing classics and folk literature in Tibet, the four rivers originate from the four source mouths of "one mountain and two lakes" (Baoxiangkou, Lionkou, Peacockkou, and Shanmakou). While flowing, they bring about "cattle and sheep prosper and flowers and grass thrive"; while passing by, they ensure "people are strong, horses are strong, and the hometown thrives". These rivers nurture the mother river of the millions of people and symbolize the cultural veins of the Himalayas and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
The No Heat Lake, according to South Asian texts, gives rise to the Sutlej (modern Sutlej), the Ganges (modern Ganges), the Fuchu (modern Brahmaputra), and the Stone (modern Sarayu). Nevertheless, two points deserve notice: 1. That the four rivers in Buddhist scriptures match their real-world counterparts was never an early consensus (the gap between imagination and reality); 2.
While the Buddhist depiction of the four source mouths does not fully match the commonly known version in Tibet, the "four rivers originating" again underscores the distinctiveness of the "Mount Kailash landscape"—both in the ancient cosmological framework and in the mountain-lake group of the altar city.
In cultural history research, "landmarks" denote specific spaces connected to power networks and characterized by fairly elaborate systems of interpretation. The "Gang Rinpoche landscape group" addressed in this article is exactly Tibet's most celebrated "sacred landmark." One example is "Map of Mount Kailash and the Two Sacred Lakes Pilgrimage" from "Kailash: A Pilgrimage Journey to the Sacred Land" by Russell Johnson and Kerry Moran (1989). Another is "The North Face of Mount Kailash" from "The Holy Mountain," released in 1934 and considered one of the earliest Western texts on Mount Kailash.
Even though the four schools hold this site in equal reverence, until the 18th century South Asian pilgrims—including Hindus and Jains—may have known the mountain and lake solely as the sacred snow mountain and lake described in the classics. This space nevertheless radiates a vibrant local cosmology, shaped by projections of a South Asian paradise, while scientific observation lets people add to the memory of the past. Still, we cannot assert that our present understanding is "complete and accurate".
Directly influencing later spiritual practitioners and emerging religious movements across South Asia and the Western world—such as Lama Govinda (1898-1985) and Swami Pranavananda (1896-1941)—was the British part in the 'scientific final validation' of the colonial classical imagination, which itself kept fueling pilgrimage. With the self-media era now at hand, the sacred mountain and lake are poised to meet both greater skepticism and renewed imaginative projection.
From the 1989 work "Kailash: A Pilgrimage to the Sacred Mountain in Tibet" by Russell Johnson and Kerry Moran—subtitled "King of the Sacred Mountain, Center of the Universe"—comes the essay "A Mother and Son on the Journey up the Mountain." Sorang Wangqing's blog serves as the source for this translated piece.