Visit Monasteries around Mt. Kailash

Kailash has five separate monasteries or gompas surrounding it, three on the main outer kora route, and two on the lesser-traveled inner kora route. Few people trek along the inner kora route, and the monasteries are less visited and less well known. The main monasteries, which lie on the outer kora, are Chukku Gompa, Drirapuk Gompa, and Dzultripuk Gompa. On the inner kora route, the monasteries are the Serlung Gompa and the Gyangdrak Gompa.

Travel Tips: Only the outer kora is available to international tourists, due to the travel policy.

Lying far up on the cliff to the west of the trail, Chukku Gompa is hard to get to, with a long and winding staircase dug into the side of the cliff being the only way up. More than 350 meters above the valley floor as you pass by, the monastery seems to be clinging to the cliff in desperation. The Gompa is said to house the statue of the founder, Chukku Rinpoche, who once resided in the caves there.

Founded around 800 years ago, the Monastery of Drirapuk is the first of the two monasteries that you will stop at overnight on the kora. It is said that the monk that founded the gompa, Chava Kotsang, spent three years, three months, and three days praying in the caves during the 13th century, and there is a small statue of him inside the cave, which can be entered and explored.

The second of the two monasteries that you stop at, Dzultripuk, lies at in the valley towards the end of the kora route, after crossing the pass at Dolma La. The monastery houses the cave where Milarepa spent many years of his life, after traveling around the mountain many times. The caves are located underneath the monastery, and can be accessed with the permission of the lamas.

A small monastery on the trail of the inner kora, Serlung Gompa was built by Dordzin Drubthob Buchung of the Drikung Lineage and is located behind Lhadar Gang pass on the western side of the kora route. On the eastern side of the route lies th Gyangdrak Gompa, which was built on the orders of the founder of the Drikung Lineage, Kyobpa Jigten Sumgon. One of the oldest monasteries in the region, the gompa was completely destroyed long ago, but was rebuilt in the late 1980s.