Myagdi. Mustang – Initiatives have been initiated to open the route leading to Kailash Mansarovar, the holy pilgrimage site at Korlana in Mustang.

KATHMANDU: A team of people’s representatives from Lomanthang and Loghekar Damodar Kunda rural municipalities has reached Dhongwasen of China with a proposal to open religious and tourism route linking Mansarovar via Korala. Chairman of Lomanthang Rural Municipality, Tasinarbu Gurung, said that the people’s representatives of the two local levels had gone to hold discussions with the Tibetan people’s representatives and officials last Friday in coordination with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Department of Immigration.

The team includes Lomanthang rural municipality vice-chair Chhyumi Bista and Loghekar Damodar Kunda rural municipality vice-chair Chhiring Lhomo Gurung and 13 people’s representatives. Chairman Gurung said that the visit was made at the personal expense of the people’s representatives.

“We have come for feasibility study of religious tourism route to reach Mansarovar via Koralanaka by coordinating with officials of Nepal and China”, he said, adding that a new dimension would be added to tourism, cultural relations and economic prosperity of Gandaki state and Nepal if our initiative materialized. ”

Chairman Gurung said that this route would be a shorter route to Kailash Mansarovar, Lhasa, Tibet and bring Chinese Buddhists to Lumbini via Korlana. According to him, Kailash Mansarovar is three hundred kilometres away from Korala border point while Lhasa is one thousand kilometres away.

President of Myagdi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Subin Shrestha, said that it would be shorter, less expensive and easier to visit Kailash Mansarovar from Korala checkpoint. Currently, Indian and Nepali tourists are visiting Mansarovar via Humla.

It is said that one can visit Kailash and Mansarovar at very low cost if there is easy movement through Korala border if a religious tourist has to spend more than two hundred thousand rupees per person while going through the Indian route.

The Immigration office was established last year at Korala transit which was opened for the people of Mustang since November 12, 2080 BS and with the closure of the Tatopani and Rasuwa border points this year, export and import of China and Nepal have started through this transit point.

Mansarovar can be easily reached from Pokhara and Kathmandu via air and road network. Every year, thousands of Nepali tourists visit Kailash Mansarovar area in Tibet, China.

It takes 25 minutes from Kathmandu to reach Kailash Mansarovar via Mustang and a 25-minute flight from Pokhara and 25 minutes from Pokhara and a 400-km journey from Pokhara to Korala of Mustang via Myagdi Beni. Those who reach Jomsom of Mustang by air can reach Korala in about four and a half hours via Lomanthang after covering a distance of 96 kilometers.

The Nechung-Liji customs point is 58 kilometres from the customs point to Zhongwasen of Shigatse Province of China and from there it will travel 300 kilometres to Kailash and Mansarovar in six hours, Gurung said. According to him, the road network and vehicles in Tibet are also modern and the journey is very easy. Kailash is situated at an altitude of 6,603 meters above sea level. It is believed that circumambulating Mount Kailash brings great merit and bathing in Mansarovar leads to salvation.

Chief of the Immigration Office, Prabesh Baduwal, said that a team of 13 people’s representatives had gone to China for a week after applying visas for the first time. It will also provide 150-day on-arrival visa free of cost to Chinese and citizens of other countries entering Nepal. The government has fixed an entry fee of five hundred dollars for foreign nationals entering Upper Mustang.