5 days ago
View from the Himalayas: For Indian pilgrims, a sneak peak of Kailash from Nepal
On June 20, the first batch of 36 Indian pilgrims on the Kailash-Manosarovar Yatra crossed over to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in China from Nathu La in Sikkim. This came after a hiatus of five years.
The long lull in bilateral ties followed after the armies were engaged in deadly (though unarmed) fights in the western Himalaya in 2020. The 3,488-kilometre Sino-Indian border has been a source of conflict and tension for decades, the 1962 war being the lowest point in bilateral ties since China became the People's Democratic Republic (PRC) under Mao and exercised greater military and political control over TAR (so named in 1965).
The resumption of the Kailash-Manosarovar Yatra was preceded by a milestone event in October 2024, as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.
They both, in separate official statements, emphasised on two major points: the Global South solidarity, and that they had so much more to gain from each other. This meant, instead of solely viewing themselves as competitors in the South Asian geopolitical theater, they should look to expand their growing business and build on their tiered civilisational ties dating back to the times when Buddhism travelled with traders and monks - first starting from the subcontinent through western China, with a great hub being the oasis city of Dunhuang. Modern China still emphasises this civilisational connection, as any visitors to that part of China will find out.
The very recent move by Delhi is also a not-so-subtle hedge in the emerging shift in geopolitics.
Since Manmohan Singh's government, India has steadily demonstrated a greater strategic convergence with the United States in the great-power rivalry, though it insists on strategic autonomy too. This shift comes in the context where America is viewed as a retreating power on multiple fronts, including in its multi-layered diplomatic engagements with smaller states in South Asia.
In 2025, the Sino-Indian ties saw clear signs of a thaw. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Beijing where the two sides agreed to resume Manasarovar Yatra for Indian pilgrims. Visits by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar followed.
Kailash Darshan from Nepal
Yet the Kailash-Manasarovar was never out of bounds for Indian pilgrims from Nepal, though very little travel took place during the Covid pandemic - between India and Nepal, and within Nepal. It was always open for 'Doordarshan' from Hilsa, which is linked by a trail and helicopter to Simikot, the district headquarters of Humla in northwestern Nepal. Kailash is only 90 km from Hilsa, and major roads in TAR are well-maintained.
In TAR, China has rapidly expanded road, air, and train connections, especially in the relatively busier eastern corridor which runs across eastern Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Arunachal Pradesh – not least given their civil-military dimension.
As the Covid restrictions eased up, Indian pilgrims again started visiting Nepal. This time in greater numbers. And it was western Nepal – and not Kathmandu – that became the hub for on-budget Kailash-bound tourists, who come from as far away as Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The journey starts in Nepalgunj, a city in Nepal's western Terai bordering Uttar Pradesh, and the Nepalgunj-Simikot-Hilsa-Kailash route takes you to the sacred site. This year the route has seen record numbers of Indian travelers. A popular form of Doordarshan
during Covid was viewing the sacred mountain and lake from mountain flights in fixed-wing eighteen-seaters or helicopters from Nepal's skies. Two other major road crossings to TAR for Kailash pilgrimage from Nepal are just north of Kathmandu – Tatopani and Rasuwagadhi.
The number of Indian pilgrims via Humla has hit a new high. On August 6 alone, 13 flights took off from Nepalgunj for Simikot. There have been up to 82 flights – plane and helicopter – in a day, according to a journalist based in western Nepal city of Surkhet. Krishna Gautam, who writes for Kantipur daily, has been following the movement of Indian pilgrims for years. Five helicopters are at a standby at Simikot Airport to fly tourists to Hilsa, he says. Since April this year, nearly 3,000 Indians have visited Manasarovar via Humla. Hotels have been booked up until September-end in Nepalgunj and Simikot. The Hilsa route is the shortest to reach Kailash Manasarovar and also far easier and less physically tiring compared to other routes, according to local hoteliers. Some pilgrims cover it all in six to 10 days (to and from), though they are asked to take it longer to acclimatize as they climb up. Some 10,000 Indian tourists are expected to take the route this year before it gets cold and snowy in the winter months.
Many pilgrims also fly dircetly to Lhasa or travel by road to TAR's capital city from Kathmandu before heading westward to Kailash. Two entry points are from India – Lipulekh in Uttarakhand and Nathu La in Sikkim. India provides grants ranging from 25,000 to 100,000 rupees to its citizens visiting Kailash Manasarovar, according to a tour operator. Indian pilgrims started using the Hilsa route especially after 2006. The Tatopani point, just north of Kathmandu, was closed for years after the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake ravaged many districts in Nepal.
Nepal is very, very open to Indian pilgrims, and Beijing doesn't mind that at all.
Akhilesh Upadhyay, former Editor-in-Chief of The Kathmandu Post, is Policy Lead at the Center for Geostrategic Affairs at IIDS, a Kathmandu-based think tank. He follows borderland communities in the Eastern Himalaya closely.
