KAILAS RANGE

Wade-Giles romanization Kang-ti-ssu Shan, Pinyin Gangdisi Shan, one of the highest and most rugged parts of the Himalayan Mountain system, located in the southwestern part of the Tibet autonomous ch' (region), China. The range has a roughly northwest-to-southeast axis and lies to the north of a trough drained in the western section by the Lang-ch'u Riverthe name by which the Sutlej River is known in Chinaand drained in the east by the Ma-ch'an River, an extreme headwater of the Brahmaputra (known in Chinese as the Ya-lu-tsang-pu River, or Tsangpo). In the middle of this depression lies Mapam Lake, reputed to be the highest freshwater lake in the world at 14,950 feet (4,557 m) above sea level. To the north of this lake lies Mount Kailas, which reaches an elevation of 22,028 feet (6,714 m); it is known as Gang Tise to the Tibetans and is the highest peak in the range. Mt. Kailas is an important holy site, both to the Hindus, who identify it with the paradise of Siva (one of the three supreme gods of Hinduism), and to the Tibetan Buddhists, who identify it with Mt. Sumeru, cosmic centre of the universe. Although access to both Mt. Kailas and Mapam Lake as places of religious pilgrimage was permitted after the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1951 and guaranteed in the Sino-Indian Treaty of 1954, access was restricted after the suppression of the subsequent Tibetan rising, and the frontier was closed in 1962. Access to the area from the south is via the high Li-p'u-lieh-ko Pass, south of P'u-lan. The Indus River rises on the north flank of the Kailas Range.