Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
taurants and supermarkets, either before or after their kora. If you need medical attention,
there's a Swiss-funded traditional Tibetan clinic in the northwest of Darchen.
Darchen is 3km north of the main Ali-Saga road, about 12km from Barkha, 107km
north of Purang, 330km southeast of Ali and a lonely 1200km from Lhasa.
Festivals & Events
The festival of
Saga Dawa
marks the enlightenment of Sakyamuni, and occurs on the full-
moon day of the fourth Tibetan month (in May or June). Saga Dawa is a particularly popu-
lar time to visit Mt Kailash, though you will have to share the Tarboche camping area with
several hundred other foreigners, most of them on group tours. You can also expect that all
the hotels in Darchen will be booked solid throughout this time. The presence of so many
tourists and their ever-present camera lenses can spoil the occasion. Other times offer a
less colourful but more personally spiritual time to make your kora.
The highlight of the festival is the raising of the Tarboche prayer pole on the morning of
Saga Dawa. Monks circumambulate the pole in elaborate costumes, with horns blowing.
There are plenty of stalls, a fair-like atmosphere and a nonstop tidal flow of pilgrims
around the pole. After the pole is raised at about 1pm everyone sets off on their kora.
How the flagpole stands when it is re-erected is of enormous importance. If the pole
stands absolutely vertical all is well, but if it leans towards Mt Kailash things are not good;
if it leans away towards Lhasa, things are even worse.
Sleeping & Eating
There's not a great deal to choose from between Darchen's hotels though more are pop-
ping up, and the new
Himalaya Hotel
offers four-star comfort and occasional wi-fi for
¥1000 a night. Most travellers stay in rustic guesthouses that offer foam beds in clean
rooms for around ¥60 per bed, with an outdoor pit toilet in the corner of a large courtyard.
Bigger places like the Gandisi Hotel are often fully booked with huge groups of Indian pil-
grims.
Pilgrim Hotel
GUESTHOUSE
(, Cháoshèng Bīnguǎn
298 0833; dm ¥60)
