Even in August, the path around the sacred mountains of the Amnye Machen range in Golok province in eastern Tibet remains covered in snow. With its peak rising 18,000 feet above sea level, the mountain is regarded as one of the holiest in Tibet. Thousands of pilgrims trek around it each year, taking as long as nine days to do so. The mountain’s melted snows become the Yellow River, the great mother waterway of China. 2001.