Decoding the mystery of Mount Kailash

In his award-winning new book, historian Alex McKay sets out to map the spiritual and scientific origins of the mountain sacred to Buddhists and Hindus alike

- Shail Desai

The change in environment was stark.

The change in environment was stark. From the lonely offshore oil rigs of the freezing North Sea, Alex McKay, who was then in his 20s, landed in the oppressive heat of the subcontinent, rubbing shoulders with the multitude in unreserved train compartments and surviving on modest budgets. Overland travel on the Hippy Trail of the 1970s was as fascinating as it was frugal, the promise of an adventure enough reason to bring him back to explore a new region in spite of the hardships.

Somewhere during these journeys through India, McKay got an idea of what Tibet was like—until then he had only known it through books. He met Tibetan pilgrims in McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, who had covered long distances to seek the Dalai Lama’s blessings. And Hindu ascetics who sought divinity while wandering the majestic high mountains and worshipped deities that lived on holy Himalayan peaks such as Mount Kailash (in Tibet), the abode of Lord Shiva.

The land and its stories fascinated McKay. But Tibet was still off limits for foreigners since the Chinese invasion of 1959. It remained forbidden fruit, tucked away at the back of his mind for years. He finally sneaked across the border in 1984. Though he had a permit to fly into Lhasa, he instead chose to take the land route, getting past multiple checkpoints to get there and also made a pilgrimage to Kailash. He realised he wanted to learn more.

The oil rig worker, who had settled into the life of a private detective based in Australia by then, decided to don the hat of an academician, teaching South Asian history in London, and Leiden in the Netherlands before retiring in 2006. The initial fascination of Tibet led to a deep study in order to grasp the significance and sacredness of Kailash in different cultures.