Flora of western Tibet

Kora day 2

Although it had cleared during the night, affording midnight toilet-goers a view of the north face of Kailash glowing darkly in the moonless night, clouds had returned by the time we set out for the kora's hardest day.
Eventually Kailash returned, behind the craggy mountain Manjushri.
The first ascent of Drolma-La pass takes you up a steep hill strewn with big rocks, many of which have further piles of rocks on them, and some of which are covered in discarded clothes of the living and the dead.
Things level out for a while (here a Bön family, circumambulating in the opposite - counterclockwise - direction, comes toward us)
Drolma-La doesn't look so bad until you notice the almost imperceptible line of people working their way up to the little bump at right, at 5641m (At left, one of the South Indians who were on the same timetable we were, but had a VIP tour including attached bathrooms and horses!)
Looking back toward Kailash, about to disappear for most of the day
A spectacular glacier urges us on as we make the final ascent
After five hours, we arrive at the prayer flag-smothered top (I took no pictures of this extravaganza of cheap color, except that of the yak here), soon moving past jade-colored lakelets to a new landscape...
...which gives way to yet another new mountain world as we descend
What will be out last view of Mount Kailash - perfect triangle at left

Looking back at yet another spectacular landscape

It's 10km in the valley to our monastery digs for the night
Butter candles in another cave of Milarepa's

Kora day 1

The kora or parikrama (or circumambulation) or Mount Kailash!
View back to dusty Darchen, where the circuit begins
Prayer flags mark the grand entrance to the valley

Very different kind of mountain on the west side

Glacier-scooped valley behind and ahead of us
Yaks before some of the 18 Arhats, on the Kailash side

Motorcyclists and horsetail falls

Fascinating melted forms on the outside, too
Mount Kailash appears in a frieze of elephants
The north face of Mount Kailash from Drirapuk

Details of the north face
Chortens at Drirapuk as Mount Kailash moves into shadow
Kailash on the moving electric prayer screen in the monastery

Mount Kailash replaced by a rainbow as our first day winds to a close

The way to Kailash

Some pictures from the long drive.
Northeast from Kathmandu, through lush terraced valleys
The border - Nepal below, Tibet (China) above
Misty mystic trip up to the Tibetan Plateau

Our first stop, Nyalamu, the tree line far below us
Nyalamu and a first few snowy peaks seen from a hike up the valley
Flowers, including stunning blue larkspurs, along the trail
The rebuilt monastery around Milarepa's cave across a valley of barley
Yak dung-lined roofs of the Tibetan village
Titular gods at this monkless monastery
One of our drivers in Milarepa's cave
Mountain crags beckon as we head northwest
A geologically dramatic landscape
Stunning peaks behind us as we approach Lalung La pass (5200m)
Looking back through the prayer flag-festooned pass
Wide open vistas
And one range of spectacular Himals after another
Pheku Lake

 Multicolor mountains like in a tankga painting
Crossing the Yarlung Tsango river - which becomes the Brahmaputra
Street scene in frontier town-like Saga, our second night in Tibet
A ruined fort in predawn light as we get an early start
Giant sand dunes
Shrine in a roadside stop - including a forbidden photo of a certain Lama
Model of a Chinese traffic policeman lost in the vastness
Gurla Mandhata, the great mountain to the south of Kailash
Fingers of rain over holy Lake Mansarovar

Mount Kailash in predawn light over Rakshas taal, the evil lake
Seductive curves of Rakshas taal 
Looking south toward Taklakot, the old pilgrimage route
Mount Kailash above Darchen