India and China have jointly agreed to resume the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra, a sacred pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in Tibet, from June to August of this year. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that the yatra will take place for the first time since its suspension in 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent border tensions following the 2020 Galwan Valley clash.
The two countries began correspondence on the matter with an October 2024 meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan, Russia, where both leaders agreed to revive dialogue mechanisms and promote people-to-people exchanges. What followed were bilateral talks, including those between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the G-20 Summit in November 2024. The final decisive move came from Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s January 2025 visit to Beijing.
The yatra’s resumption coincides with the 75th anniversary of India-China diplomatic relations. It follows the successful disengagement of troops at friction points in Demchok and Depsang along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in October 2024. The pilgrimage will operate via two routes—Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand (five batches of 50 pilgrims each) and Nathu La Pass in Sikkim (ten batches of 50 pilgrims each). The applications for the same are open at kmy.gov.in.
