750 pilgrims selected for this year’s Kailash Mansarovar Yatra

ACome of 750 people were elect through and through a computerised quarter on midweek for the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra in Tibet, being organised after five years, as India and China seek to normalise ties after the military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). This year’s pilgrimage will begin in June and continue until August, said the external affairs ministry, which organises the yatra to Mount Kailash and Mansarovar Lake in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The pilgrimage had been suspended since 2020, initially because of the pandemic and then the protracted face-off on the LAC. Minister of state for external affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh conducted the computerised draw to select the pilgrims from among the 5,561 applicants, including 4,024 men and 1,537 women, who had registered online. The selected pilgrims will travel in five batches of 50 yatris each via Lipulekh Pass, and 10 batches of 50 yatris each via the Nathu La route, the ministry said. Each batch will include two liaison officers. “Both routes are now fully motorable and involve very little trekking,” it said. The pilgrims were selected “through a fair, computer-generated, random, gender-balanced selection process”, the ministry said. The selected pilgrims will be informed through SMS and email. They can log in at the Yatra website (https://kmy.gov.in)Singh highlighted the steps taken to make the pilgrimage more accessible and the process more transparent, while simultaneously ensuring the safety and well-being of yatris. He urged the yatris to “undertake the pilgrimage with a sense of responsibility, humility and mindfulness, while caring for each other as well as protecting the sanctity of the environment”. On April 26, India announced the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra as part of measures by New Delhi and Beijing to normalise relations that had been taken to an all-time low by the face-off in the Ladakh sector of the LAC. HT first reported on April 16 that India and China were close to an understanding on resuming the pilgrimage after the more than four-year standoff on the LAC. The resumption of the pilgrimage and direct flights, which, too, were suspended in 2020, were among confidence-building measures discussed by the two sides since they reached an understanding on disengagement of troops last October. Two days after the understanding on disengagement of forces, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met in the Russian city of Kazan and decided to revive several mechanisms to address the border dispute and normalise relations. The pilgrimage to the site in Tibet is of religious significance to Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists, and pilgrims travel at altitudes of up to 19,500 feet in extreme weather and rugged terrain.