Khumbila or Khumbu Yül-Lha, roughly translated as "God of Khumbu village" is one of the high Himalayan peaks in the

Khumbu Khumbu (also known as the Everest Region) is a region of northeastern Nepal on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest. It is part of the Solukhumbu District, which in turn is part of Koshi Pradesh.Bradley, Mayhew; "Trekking in the Nepal Himalaya"; ...

region of eastern

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

within the

Sagarmatha National Park Sagarmāthā National Park is a national park in the Himalayas of eastern Nepal that was established in 1976 and encompasses an area of in the Solukhumbu District. It ranges in elevation from and includes Mount Everest. In the north, it shares ...

. Considered too sacred to be climbed by most local

Sherpa SHERPA (Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access) is an organisation originally set up in 2002 to run and manage the SHERPA Project. History SHERPA began as an endeavour to support the establishment of a number of open ...

people, the mountain is considered home to the patron God of the local area. Rising 5,761m above sea level, the mountain overlooks the famous southern approaches to its larger neighbours including

Ama Dablam Ama Dablam is a mountain in the Eastern Himalayas range of Koshi Province, Nepal. The main peak is , the lower western peak is . Ama Dablam means "mother's necklace"; the long ridges on each side like the arms of a mother (''ama'') protecting he ...

and

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

. Khumbila has never been climbed; one attempt prior to the 1980s ended when climbers were killed in an avalanche, and there have been no subsequent attempts.

Religious importance

Khumbila is said to be a god, and an old one. The prayers for Khumbila are believed to date back to the time when the ancestors of the Sherpas were still in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

(more than 500 years ago). Khumbila is said to have been subdued and converted to Buddhism by

Guru Rimpoche Padmasambhava ('Born from a Lotus'), also known as Guru Rinpoche ('Precious Guru'), was a legendary tantric Buddhist Vajra master from Oddiyana. who fully revealed the Vajrayana in Tibet, circa 8th – 9th centuries... He is considered an ema ...

, the 8th-century saint who spread Buddhism throughout the Himalaya. In fact, Guru Rimpoche is said to have spent some time meditating in a cave above

Khunde Khunde () is a village in the Khumbu region of Nepal within the Sagarmatha National Park. It is directly adjacent to Khumjung village in the valley at the foot of Khumbu Yül-Lha, the sacred mountain of the Sherpas. The Khumjung Valley is locate ...

, perhaps on the mountain Khumbila itself. Local buildings often have

prayer flag A Tibetan prayer flag is a colorful rectangular cloth, often found strung along trails and peaks high in the Himalayas. They are used to bless the surrounding countryside and for other purposes. Prayer flags are believed to have originated with ...

s on bamboo wands to honour Khumbila. File:Khumbila 1.JPG, Khumbila from south File:Khumbila 2.JPG, Khumbila above the Khumjung and Kunde villages File:Khumbila 3.JPG, Khumbila from the east

References

Mountains of Koshi Province Five-thousanders of the Himalayas Sacred mountains of Nepal {{Nepal-mountain-stub