Nathula Pass : A New Route for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra

Nathula Pass, A New Gateway to Kailash Mansarovar

India and China have signed a bilateral agreement regarding the access of Nathula route; this will be an alternate route for the existing Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand.

It is expected that more than 1600 pilgrims, in ten batches will be taking Kailash Mansarovar yatra through Nathula Pass, Sikkim route by June next year.

For this purpose, two senior officials of Ministry of External Affairs have inspected whether all the plans have been efficiently implemented or not.

The new route eradicates the hardships of the pilgrims and aims at providing ease especially to the senior citizens. 17^th Mile and Sherathang have been finalized as acclimatization centers for the pilgrims. As per the proposal, pilgrims will be required to halt for at least two days in Gangtok and then head to 17^th Mile and Sherathang for further acclimatization before getting into thinner air of Tibet.

Also, the pilgrims can now drive through this route to reach Kailash Mansarovar. For this, they will be starting from Gangtok (Sikkim) to Shigatse (Tibet). And from Shigatse they can hire a van or board a bus in order to reach Mansarovar and Kailash.

Talking about Nepal route, it takes about ten days to cover the journey. Uttarakhand route takes twenty-seven days. And the Nathula Pass route takes eight days. Nathula Route is open from March to November, while Lipulekh route is open from June to September.

[ If interested? Check out the list of Packages for Kailash Mansarovar ]