About Mt Kailash & Lake Manasarovar

EXTRACTED from ::https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kailash

Mount Kailash
The north face of Mount Kailash
Elevation	6,638 m (21,778 ft)
Prominence	1,319 m (4,327 ft)
Location
Mount Kailash Tibet
Range	Transhimalaya
Coordinates	31°4′0″N 81°18′45″E

Mount Kailash (also Mount Kailas; Kangrinboqê or Gang Rinpoche; simplified Chinese: 冈仁波齐峰,Gāngrénbōqí fēng, Sanskrit: कैलाश Kailāśa) is a peak in the Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains), which forms part of the Transhimalaya in Tibet. It lies near the source of some of the longest rivers in Asia: the Indus River, the Sutlej River (a major tributary of the Indus River), the Brahmaputra River, and the Karnali River (a tributary of the River Ganga). It is considered a sacred place in four religions: Bön, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. The mountain lies near Lake Manasarovar and Lake Rakshastal in Tibet.

The mountain is known as Kailāśa (कैलाश) in Sanskrit.[1][2] The word may be derived from the word kēlāsa (केलास) which means "crystal".[3] In his Tibetan-English dictionary, Chandra (1902: p. 32) identifies the entry for 'kai la sha' (Wylie: kai la sha) which is a loan word from Sanskrit 'kailāśa' (Devanagari: कैलाश).[4]

The Tibetan name for the mountain is Gangs Rin-po-che. Gangs or Kang is the Tibetan word for snow peak analogous to alp or himal; rinpoche is an honorific meaning "precious one" so the combined term can be translated "precious jewel of snows".

According to Hinduism, Lord Shiva, the destroyer of ignorance and illusion, resides at the summit of a legendary mountain named Kailāśa, where he sits in a state of perpetual meditation along with his wife Pārvatī. He is at once the Lord of Yoga and therefore the ultimate renunciate ascetic, yet he is also the divine master of Tantra.[7]

According to Charles Allen, one description in the Vishnu Purana of the mountain states that its four faces are made of crystal, ruby, gold, and lapis lazuli.[8] It is a pillar of the world and is located at the heart of six mountain ranges symbolizing a lotus.[8]

Every year, thousands make a pilgrimage to Kailash, following a tradition going back thousands of years. Pilgrims of several religions believe that circumambulating Mount Kailash on foot is a holy ritual that will bring good fortune. The peregrination is made in a clockwise direction by Hindus and Buddhists. Followers of the Jain and Bönpo religions circumambulate the mountain in a counterclockwise direction. The path around Mount Kailash is 52 km (32 mi) long.

Lake Manasarovar (also Manas Sarovar, Mapam Yumtso; Tibetan: མ་ཕམ་གཡུ་མཚོ།, Wylie: ma pham g.yu mtsho; Sanskrit:मानसरोवर ; Chinese: 玛旁雍错) is a freshwater lake in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, 940 kilometres (580 mi) from Lhasa. To the west of it is Lake Rakshastal; to the north is Mount Kailash.

Manasarovar    Mapham Yumtso

Location	Tibet Autonomous Region,China
Coordinates	30.65°N 81.45°ECoordinates: 30.65°N 81.45°E
Surface area	410 km2 (160 sq mi)
Max. depth	90 m (300 ft)
Surface elevation 4,590 m ( 15060 ft)

Satellite view of Lake Manasarovar Rakshastal and Mt Kailash 

Lake Manasarovar lies at 4,590 metres (15,060 ft) above mean sea level, a relatively high elevation for a large freshwater lake on the mostly saline lake-studded Tibetan Plateau. Despite claims to the contrary, there are hundreds of higher freshwater lakes in the world, including a larger and higher freshwater lake at 4,941 metres (16,211 ft) above sea level and 495 km² in size, Angpa Tso (also known as Chibzhang Co, Migriggyangzham Co, East Chihpuchang Hu), further east on the Tibetan Plateau at 33°24′N 90°17′E. The largest freshwater lake of its size (290 km²) over 5000 meters elevation is Pumoyong Tso (also known as Puma Yumco, Po-mo Hu, Pumuoyong Tso), also on the Tibetan Plateau, at28°34′N 90°24′E at 5,018 metres (16,463 ft) elevation.^[1]

Lake Manasarovar^[2] is relatively round in shape with the circumference of 88 kilometres (55 mi). Its depth reaches a maximum depth of 90 m (300 ft)^{[citation needed]} and its surface area is 320 square kilometres (120 sq mi). It is connected to nearby Lake Rakshastal by the natural Ganga Chhu channel. Lake Manasarovar is near the source of the Sutlej, which is the easternmost large tributary of the Indus. Nearby are the sources of the Brahmaputra River, the Indus River, and theGhaghara, an important tributary of the Ganges.

Lake Manas Sarovar overflows in to lake Rakshastal which is a salt-water endorheic lake. These lakes used to be part of the Sutlej basin and were separated due to tectonic activity. 

The word "Manasarovara" originates from Sanskrit, which is a combination of the words "Manas" "sarovara" manas meaning mind and sarovara meaning lake. According to the Hindu religion, the lake was first created in the mind of the Lord Brahma after which it manifested on Earth
In Hinduism, Lake Manasarovar is a personification of purity, and one who drinks water from the lake will go to the abode of Shiva after death. He is believed to be cleansed of all his sins committed over even a hundred lifetimes.

Like Mount Kailash, Lake Manasarovar is a place of pilgrimage, attracting religious people from India, Nepal,Tibet and neighboring countries. Bathing in Manasarovar and drinking its water is believed to cleanse all sins.Pilgrimage tours are organized regularly, especially from India, the most famous of which is the yearly "Kailash Manas Sarovar Yatra". Pilgrims come to take ceremonial baths in the cleansing waters of the lake.

Lake Manasarovar has long been viewed by the pilgrims as being nearby to the sources of four great rivers of Asia, namely the Brahmaputra, Ghaghara, Indus and Sutlej, thus it is an axial point which has been thronged to by pilgrims for thousands of years. The region was closed to pilgrims from the outside following the Battle of Chamdo; no foreigners were allowed between 1951 and 1980. After the 1980s it has again become a part of the Indian pilgrim trail.

According to the Hinduism, the lake was first created in the mind of Brahma after which it manifested on Earth.Hence it is called "Manasa sarovaram", which is a combination of the Sanskrit words for "mind" and "lake". The lake is also supposed to be the summer abode of the hamsa. Considered to be sacred, the hamsa is an important element in the symbology of the subcontinent, representing wisdom and beauty.