Kasi Valley

Kasi Valley is located outside the Park of Yading

Kasi Valley is also called Kasi Hell Valley. It is located on the west to Yading Park, east to Kasi Village, and named after the village. It is the west entrance of Yading Park and the starting point of Yading Camping Trek.

Kasi Valley, or more generally referred by local people and the Yading lovers the "Kasi Hell Valley". It is a narrow gulley east to the Yading Reserve stretching 13 km long to the Kasi Village at the westward and the deepest part reaching 1000 meters, enclosuring odd-shaped rocks, raging flows and the most primitive forest.

The valley is 12km from 2850 meters rises up to almost 5000 meters and the maximum depth of the valley is 1000 meters. Why it is called Valley of Hell? It is one of the eight cold forests (corpse forests) mentioned in the Buddhist texts. In Tibetan Buddhism, after the death of a person, the soul travels from Hell Valley through the eighteen layers of hell to the heavens. Therefore, Hell Valley is the only way for human flesh to fly from earth to heaven. Another explanation is that the hiking from the bottom (at 2850m) to the pass (at over 4600m) is hard and strenuous and it makes hikers feel like walking in dark and hedious environment.

Kasi Village is the terminal of this Yading Trekking trip. This is a very quiet and serene village at the Dongyi river conjunction. A dozen of Tibetan families live here in their unique three floured constructions. This village is where we end our trekking phase and transfer to Daocheng.

Many of the rocks are described by local people metaphorically as guillotines, choppers and balance scales, something from the Hell. In the Tibetan legend or belief, people will have to walk through this gulley after their death and then towards the heaven. Therefore, one may say the heaven is the three Holy Mountains of Yading and the Hell is the Kasi Valley. One has to respect the holy spirits that dwell here when walking through this gulley.

Walking into the Kasi Hell Valley is like walking into a mythical story: a thousand-year-old cypress, a calcification pool, a calcified waterfall, etc. can be seen at the entrance of the valley; into the gates of hell formed by the strange rocks, through the cloud-filled virgin forest. Then, you will come to the Temple of the Kings. You will see the peaks of the mountains when you cross the Ghost Cliffs.

Views reach a new level when walk into this tranquil gully. Streams making water-rushing sound makes the valley even more quiet and the elevation loss from origin of the stream which is at the foot of Chenrezig, to Kasi Village, is around 1500 meters. Vegetation changes from low shrubs to towering big trees as altitude drops. Some have visited this gully have commented that Kasi Gulley have the delicateness and tranquility that Yading doesn't have.

Mysterious legend of Kasi Hell Valley: The legendary Kas Hell Valley is where the gods on the snowy mountains punish the demons. Before your body enters heaven from the world, you must first check to see if you can ascend to heaven or be sent to hell. It is said that when people who worship the mountain pass through Hell Valley, they must turn the prayer wheels in their hand, chat the holy words, take off their shoes and walk barefoot, and experience the torture of "Going to hell before going to heaven".