Jacques Vigne
Born in 1956, Jacques Vigne was very fond of mathematics early on, then, chose to study medicine and psychiatry in Paris. After practicing medicine in Algeria, he received a scholarship to study as a psychiatrist from the ‘Roman Rolland Foundation’. He then received a grant from ‘La Maison des Sciences de l’homme’ to study the connection between psychological recovery and traditional teaching of Yoga.
He has been living in India for 28 years and shares his time between an ‘ashram’, near the riverside of Ganges, close to Hardwar, and a hermitage located 2000 meters high in Himalaya. He has written numerous books about science and spirituality, which are a link between Eastern and Western worlds. Jacques Vigne is the author of major literary works. His writings are careful to establish bridges between modern psychology and spirituality, as well as between the wisdom of India and that of Christianity.
Most of his articles can be found on his site: http://www.jacquesvigne.com/
Mount Kailash, located in far west corner of Tibet is the most sacred peak of Asia. The beauty of the 6700-meter high Mount Kailash, that looks like a symmetrical cone shaped rock capped by pure crystalline ice all the time, is echoed in various mythological and literary works. Dominating the north of the Himalayan Barrier with its spectacular view, the Mount Kailash (or Mt. Kailas) is equally venerated as the holiest pilgrimage site by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Bön-Po. Tibetans regard this mountain as the manifestation of Mount Meru, “the navel of the earth” where founder of Bon religion, Tonpa Shenrab, is believed to have descended from heaven, Hindus as the abode of Lord Shiva, Buddhists as the abode of Samvara and Jains as a sacred site where their prophet, Rishaba attained spiritual enlightenment. With its four sheer walls, distinctive snow-capped peak, and valleys interspersed with brightly-clad Tibetan pilgrims, Mount Kailash or Kang Rimpoche (‘precious snow-peak’, as known by the Tibetans) is an awe-inspiring sight.Four great rivers of Asia: the Karnali, the Indus, the Sutlej and the Brahmaputra (Tsangpo) originate from here. A three-day trek (Parikrama or Kora) around Mount Kailash over a 5630 meter Drolma La (pass), clockwise for Buddhists and Hindus, and anti-clockwise followers of the ancient Bon religion, is said to erase the sins of a lifetime. To complete the Kailash pilgrimage one should bath in the sacred Lake Manasarovar, stunningly set on the Tibetan plateau bordered by the majestic Gurla Mandata. On the journey to Mt. Kailash across the windswept Tibetan plateau, you will see cliff-top monasteries, wild-looking but hardy and hospitable Tibetans, yak caravans journeying over snowy passes, and the great peaks of the Himalaya with a foreground of grazing herds, yak skin tents and a glittering turquoise lake. Journeying through Norbulingka, Sera and Drepung monasteries, Potala Palace, Jokhang temple and Barkhor markets, you gain in-depth understanding of Tibetan ancient cultures and civilizations. On this expertly guided overland tour on 4WD landcruiser, you get to explore colorful mosaic of Tibetan arts, crafts, history, culture, custom, tradition, lifestyle and cuisine and in the process attain profound spirituality. You become a witness to a host of indigenous cultures on your tour to Lhasa Gyantse, Shigatse and other significant en route cities. Further drive across the wide open spaces of the Tibetan Plateau brings you to Lake Manasarovar, before completing a kora around Mt Kailash. From there, you re-cross the vast arid plains before heading south to the Nepalese border and returning to Kathmandu.
This is truly the trip of a lifetime with stunning scenery and cultural highlights. The tour starts with a comprehensive trip briefing in Kathmandu followed by a sensational trans Himalayan flight to Lhasa that passes over Mt. Everest and many highest peaks of the world (if you join the tour in Kathmandu).
Trip length: 14th May Arrival till 07th June Depart 24 Nights & 25 Days
Grade: Moderate to fairly challenging
Starts in: Kathmandu
Ends in: Kathmandu
Accommodation:Hotel, Lodge and camping
Transportation:4WD Land cruiser with support truck
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
Maximum altitude:5630m
Outline Itinenary
Day 01- Arrive Kathmandu (1400m)
Day 02- Sightseeing tour Kathmandu
Day 03- Sightseeing tour Kathmandu
Day 04– Kathmandu/ Bodhanath
Day 05- Bodhanath
Day 06- Arrive Lhasa (3660 meters)
Day 07- Sightseeing tour in Lhasa
Day 08- Sightseeing tour in Lhasa
Day 09- Drive to Gyantse (3950m)
Day 10- Sightseeing tour & drive to Shigatse (3900m)
Day 11- Sightseeing tour & drive to Lhatse (4050m)
Day 12- Drive to Saga (4600m)
Day 13- Drive to Paryang (4750m)
Day 14- Drive to Manasarovar (4560m)
Day 15- At Manasarovar (4560m)
Day 16- Drive to Darchen (4560m)
Day 17- Trek to Dira-puk (4900m)
Day 18- Trek across Droma La (5630m) to Zutul-Puk (4790m)
Day 19- Trek to Darchen (4560m) & drive to Ngari Phuntsom
Day 20- Drive to Saga (4600m)
Day 21- Drive to Nyalam
Day 22- Drive to Dhulikhel
Day 23- Drive to Bodhanath
Day 24– Visit of Bodhanath
Day 25 – After lunch Depart/ Home
Overnight Kathmandu.
Start by Swyambhu Nath and Kathmandu Durbar Square and lunch in Thamel & evening back to Hotel
Overnight Kathmandu.
Drive to Bhaktapur Sightseeing & lunch in Bhaktapur and drive to Patan evening back to Hotel.
Overnight Kathmandu.
Overnight Bodhanath.
Overnight Bodhanath.
Fly Kathmandu to Lhasa. On arrival at Gonggar Airport in Lhasa, you will be met by your Tibetan guide. After immigration formalities take a 1.5-hour drive along 93 km road leading to Lhasa lying at an altitude of 3660 meters. It’s advisable to rest and take it easy for the remainder of the day due to Lhasa’s altitude.
Foremost, your tour begins with a visit to SERA MONASTERY. An experienced tour guide also working as an interpreter escorts you to this preserved monastery of white-washed walls and golden roofs. Equally adventurous and exciting tempo builds up while touring NORBULINGKA, the summer palace of the Dalai Lama. JOKHANG TEMPLE is another important sacred site which unravels more deep seated mysteries of Tibetan Buddhism. Visit to BARKHOR MARKETS can be quite a change from other visits as you roam around the city savoring every tiny detail from stall hawkers coaxing their clients to purchase their goods to exhibition of Tibetan culture, custom and tradition. Eventually, the tour for the day concludes as you return to the comforts of your hotel.
Like the previous day, you experience invaluable insights during your visits to POTALA PALACE and DREPUNG MONASTERY. This 17th century POTALA PALACE offers an awesome view of entire city and also has private quarters of the Dalai Lama, numerous grand state rooms and chapels. Ancient history has it that Drepung Monastery which was built in 14th century used to shelter around 10,000 monks but as now there has been quite a declination resulting in only few hundreds. Tibetans’ respect and belief are immensely knotted with this monastery.
You get an entire day free for acclimatization. After proper rest, you can either indulge in sightseeing, shop or do whatever you fancy. You also get an option of undertaking an additional tour to places such as the Tibetan Medical Centre, Ganden Monastery and Tsurphu Monastery. But this will incur extra costs.
Following Friendship Highway, you drive past Khamba La at 4794 meter with a brief halt to savor majestic views of Yamdrok-tso Lake and Nazin Kang Sa standing proud at 7252m. On turning westwards, you come across another Karo La pass at 5045 m. If you glance at the road, you can see huge glaciers tumbling down into the road. After hours of driving for 261 km, beautifully landscaped Tibetan villages become visible as you enter the town of Gyantse.
Gyantse prides on GYANTSE DZONG and KUMBUM. Gyantse Dzong is a historical fort built in the 14th century and overlooks a mesmerizing view of entire Gyantse and surrounding Nyang Chu Valley. Kumbum has large gold-domed stupa and houses several chapels and Tibetan Buddhist murals. After you enjoy exploring Gyantse, you will take a 90 km drive to Shigatse. Having driven to an altitude of 3900 meter, you find yourself at Shigatse, second largest city of Tibet.
TASHILHUNPO MONASTERY being one of the largest functioning monasteries in Tibet is a major attraction of Shigatse.
Today you continue along the Friendship Highway to Lhaste. 157 km drive finally concludes at a small dusty town of Lhaste. Good restaurants, well-resourced shops and guesthouses are available in Lhatse. This place may arouse special interest in archeologists. You can spot many ruined dzongs and small Changmoche Monastry at the west end of the town. You meet your Sherpa cooking team from Nepal here, they cook and do camping chores from this point onwards.
Heading away from Lhaste, the trail follows a route that brushes past Brahmaputra River. Further ahead, a river valley sprawls over and then traditional picturesque villages come into picture. This scenically rewarding drive provides plenty of opportunities for photography. Thereon, the trail wends towards northern route. On covering 295km, you reach an elevation of 4600 meters. Shortly after finding a right campsite in Saga, you rest the trip as the night approaches.
Taking another 255km drive from Saga to Paryang, you weave your way through small dusty town of Zhongba amidst enchanting panoramic views. Overnighting in Paryang at a fabulous campsite with high expectation of forthcoming Mount Kailash tour and trek, you bask in the most amazing travel experience.
Lake Prior to Mount Kailash tour and trek you have to transverse along 270 km distance from Paryang to Manasarovar. This route penetrates the very essence of Manasarovar Lake amid extraordinary landscape. As you near this breathtaking sacred lake, historic Chiu Monastery becomes visible on the North West shore of the lake. From this vantage point, you can even glimpse at majestic Mount Kailash. This journey stimulates you spiritually.
Today is our rest day before we head towards Mt Kailsh. Lake Manasarvoar is the highest freshwater lake in the world; it covers an area of 412 square kilometres and has a maximum depth of 70m. This stunning & sacred lake sits in a basin between Mt Kailash and Gurla Mandata.
After an early breakfast we trek around Manasarovar to Gosul Gomba (about 3 hours) before driving on to both Chiu Gomba and finally, Darchen. Darchen is considered as the base camp for the Holy Kailash Parikrama.
This morning we set off towards Mt Kailash for Tarboche, the base for the Saga Dawa festival and the starting point of our kora around Mt Kailash. Tarboche is marked by a tall flagpole adorned with thousands of multi-colored prayer flags and kata scarves strung out in radiating lines from the pole. This morning we meet our team of yaks and our Tibetan yak drivers who will escort us around the kora. From Tarboche we walk up the Lha Chu Valley through beautiful green meadows and streams with the West face of Mt Kailash towering above us. We follow the beautiful turquoise river which enters a narrow canyon with high, steep cliffs and spectacular waterfalls. As we continue up the valley, skirting right the north face of Kailash comes into view just before we reach the 13th century monastery at Dirapuk
We now leave the Lha Chu and enter the Drolma Chu Valley just as the sunrise turns the snow peaks gold and pink, heading up towards the 5,630 meter Drolma La. Although the altitude makes the trekking difficult, the masses of pilgrims performing their acts of devotion along the way are continuously intriguing. Those extremely devout pilgrims prostrate themselves the entire way around Mt Kailash, kneeling down and extending their bodies and hands in front of them in prayer (and marking the beginning of the next prostration). The trail is lined with sacred sites: butter, coin & flags decorate the way, rocks with footprints of saints, rocks to climb over, under or through, hillsides of discarded clothes as offerings and other significant sites. It's a tough climb to the prayer-flag festooned summit but it’s all worth it as from the top juniper incense burns and thousands of colorful prayer flags send prayers out into the surrounding valleys. We take the lead from the many pilgrims and stop for lunch on the descent from the high pass. Below us lies the Lake of Compassion, Thukpe Dzingbu, one of the highest lakes in the world. We will camp in the valley situated at the Eastern face of Mount Kailash at Khando Sanglam.
Another couple of hours of bright early morning trekking take us along a boulderfilled river to Zutul-puk Gompa (4790m), with Milarepa’s meditation cave and imprints of his hand, food and head prints. Afterwards, it’s an easy walk along some impressive gorges and around many mani stones and walls back to the Barka plains and the dusty Darchen where our jeeps await us. The kora is finished - we’ve erased our sins, endured extremely cold nights and mornings, crossed one of the highest passes in the world, met countless fellow pilgrims, sent prayers of peace out to the world. Congratulations! It's a 250 km drive through wild country from Lake Manasarovar to Ngari Phuntsom. We cross wide plains, shallow rivers and pass by a few local truck stops with makeshift tea houses. Passing the stunning Mayum-tso Lake, we climb to the Mayum La, where we are rewarded by a magnificent mountain panorama.
The scenery along this section is some of the most beautiful of the entire journey.
Good karma acquired all around, we pack up camp and drive along the beautiful bluffs to Ngari Phuntsom (4540m) where we camp near to the River.
From Ngari Phuntsom, we drive another 300 km east cresting passes marked with prayer flags and cairns. The panoramas are simply divine with the high mountains bordering Nepal to our right and pebbly streams, small lakes & small Tibetan villages all around us. We traverse this amazing Tibetan landscape, crossing more high passes and here as if a mirage, the landscape gently transforms into a plateau of high-altitude desert sand dunes. There’s time to climb up to the wind-sculpted ridges and gaze over a bordering lake. We camp near Saga.
Crossing Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra River) you continue driving 250 km to Nyalam. Soon after leaving Saga the road opens into a wide flat plain and passes through huge turquoise lake, the Peiku-Tso with spectacular view of Shishapangma (8027m) as the backdrop. Further drive across Lalung La (5200m) through a perfect blend of breathtaking views, alpine meadow trails, picturesque hamlets and an abundance of wildflowers finally brings you to Nyalam at 3750 meter.
From Nyalam, you drive down to the border town of Zhangmu. From Zhangmu, it’s a short drive to the Friendship Bridge which spans the Bhote Kosi River and marks the Chinese - Nepalese border where you part with your Tibetan guide and driver and walk to Nepalese Immigration Control in Kodari where you will be met by your Nepalese staff. After completing the re-entry formalities you continue the drive to Dhulikhel for Lunch, depending on road and weather conditions, should take about 4-5 hours.
Overnight Bodhanath.
Price Includes:
Price excludes:
Booking Condition
Accomodation
While in Lhasa/Shigatse & Gyantse you will be staying in a hotel. In Tibet sleeping and eating will be in tents/guest house unless specified otherwise in the itinerary. Where guest houses are mentioned in the program we endeavor to stay in the best possible accommodation, though you should be aware that most of the guest houses in Tibet are quite basic.
Food
Your kitchen crew will provide tasty, plentiful and nutritious meals daily with a variety of local and Continental dishes. Food will be prepared either by a Nepali cook specially trained on western & Indian food preparation.
We use as much fresh produce as possible and our cooks and kitchen crew maintain exceptional standards of cleanliness and food preparation hygiene. Special dietary requirements can always be catered to.
Transaction
The road in Tibet can be quite rough at times and impassable for many vehicles. For this reason we use 4-wheel-drive Toyota Land Cruiser. These vehicles are extremely reliable and will make the journey as comfortable as possible. For the section between Kathmandu and Tibet border transportation comfortable private mini tourist coach is provided. In Tibet there will be a truck for carrying luggage, camping equipments. While on trek we will provide yak to carry your personal gear. Extra yaks, yak men and horses can be provided for an additional cost.
Important
All the personal details - passport photocopy, full name and address, date of birth, profession, nationality must be sent one month in advance with 25% (of total trip cost) non-refundable advance payment. 2 weeks prior to tour departure date, 100% of the total cost should reach responsible treks account by telex transfer with passport copy (valid at least 6 months from the date of departure). Full payment should be made before departure to Tibet-Kailash.
Physical Fitness
Every Participant undertaking this trip must be physically fit. The trek around Kailash requires some strenuous hiking and altitude can take a physical toll on the body. We recommend to carryout physical exercise prior to the trip. If you have any chronic health problems please consult your doctor.
Liablities
We suggest that clients should be covered by Travel, medical, health and other types of insurance. These cannot be obtained in India. The above quotations are subject to amendment should the Transporters/ Hotelier amend their rates prior to commencement of the tour Teerth Travels Pvt. Ltd while undertaking tours, transportation, hotel accommodation and other services only act as an agent on the clear understanding that they shall not be, in any way responsible or liable for any accident, damage, loss, delay or inconvenience caused in connection with the travel facilities arranged by the Company, its employees or agents. All bookings are accepted and executed with utmost care, yet no responsibility is undertaken for any change or deviation on account of factors beyond our control.