Lipulekh Pass returns to the map: What's in it for Indian travellers?

Our neighbours Tibet and China, and parts of the Himalayas, got back a little closer to India with the reopening of the Lipulekh Pass, just as dates for the next Kailash Mansarovar Yatra near.

India and China resumed cross-border trade and travel through the Lipulekh Pass, reopening a high-altitude route that had been on pause for six years. On June 26, the first batch of 26 traders from Uttarakhand crossed into Tibet’s Taklakot market in Purang county (essentially the OG pop-up market in the region).

Why’s Lipulekh Pass important?

Located near the sacred Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, the Lipulekh trek is where trade and pilgrimage have coexisted longer than most modern borders. The pass is one of the few routes taken by pilgrims to reach the Kailash mountain range in China. Most crossings through the pass happen during the seasonal window starting from July until September.

More on Lipulekh Pass

At over 5,300 metres, Lipulekh is one of three official India–China trade points, alongside Shipki La and Nathu La. All these routes went dark after COVID and the 2020 Galwan Valley clash. The good news is they’re now slowly making a comeback. 

Lipulekh is situated in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand and includes dynamic tourist and trade points like the small village of Dharchula. For seasoned trekkers, it’s a bucket list item because of its intense weather and terrain combined. The trek from Gunji to Nabhidang to Lipulekh Pass is quite adventurous.

But the same pass is conducive for scenic long drives at some points, say from Kathgodam/Tanakpur to Dharchula, or even up to Gunji, one of the last villages before China starts.

For centuries, traders from Uttarakhand’s hill villages have trekked up with ponies loaded with jaggery, grain, cotton, and wool, trading in Taklakot for salt, wool, borax, and whatever else the mountains decide is currency that season. Cash, barter, credit: everything works at Lipulekh Pass! Until the cold sets in… when everyone packs up and heads back downhill like a pack of birds.