Travel To Pan-Tibet Regions With Pan-Tibet Travel

Aden Nature Reserve Park

If the altitude of Daocheng County doesn't leave you speechless, the magnificent mountains and meadows in the vicinity of this 4,000-meter-high plateau surely will. Holy snow-capped mountains, lakes and temples, once accessed only by the odd explorers, now attract a host of visitors seeking “the last Shangri-la”, the Yading Nature Reserve Park.

Eighty-three kilometers south of the county's central town, the Yading Nature Reserve Park is anchored by Nianqing Konka Risumgongba as the “three protective sacred mountains where the snow will never melt.” The three peaks were blessed in the 8th century, when Buddha Padmasambhava shed his divine light on the range, and named the three elevations after three bodhisattvas. The 5,958-meter-high southern peak, Jambeyang (or Yangmaiyong in Mandarin), represents Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, while the eastern peak Chanadorje (Xiaruoduoji), of the same height, stands for Vajrapani, the Bodhisattva of Wrath. As the tallest of the soaring trio, the 6,032-meter-high north peak, Shenrezig (Xiannairi), represents Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron-saint of Tibet. As leader of the U.S. National Geographic Society's Yunnan-Sichuan Expedition, Joseph F. Rock, the renowned American explorer and botanist, visited Yading in 1928. Awed by the sacred snowy peaks, he wrote and took photographs for an article entitled “Konka Risumgongba, Holy Mountain of the Outlaws,” published in National Geographic in July of 1931. “The Shenrezig peak resembles a huge white throne, such as Living Buddhas use when meditating -- a worthy seat for a Tibetan deity!” wrote Rock. “In a cloudless sky before me rose the peerless pyramid of Jambeyang, the finest mountain my eyes ever beheld.” Topped by a crown of snow and veiled by wispy clouds, three peaks tower magnificently over a 1,280-square-kilometer area, but are visible only on clear days.