
Namcha Barwa or Namchabarwa (;
Chinese: 南迦巴瓦峰,
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
: ''Nánjiābāwǎ Fēng'') is a
mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...
peak lying 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 ...
in the region of
Pemako. The traditional definition of the Himalaya extending from the
Indus
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the dis ...
River to the
Brahmaputra
The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Southwestern China, Northeastern India, and Bangladesh. It is known as Brahmaputra or Luit in Assamese, Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, and ...
would make it the eastern anchor of the entire mountain chain, and it is the highest peak of its own
section as well as Earth's easternmost peak over .
[
] It lies in the
Nyingchi Prefecture
Nyingchi (), also known as Linzhi ( zh, s=林芝, p=Linzhi) or Nyingtri, is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of the Tibet Autonomous Region in China. The administrative seat of Nyingchi is Bayi District.
Nyingchi is the location of Buch ...
of Tibet. It is the highest peak in the 180 km long
Namcha Barwa Himal range (also called the Namjagbarwa
syntaxis or Namjagbarwa Group Complex), which is considered the easternmost syntaxis/section of the Himalaya in southeastern Tibet and northeastern India where the Himalaya are said to end, although high ranges (
Hengduan Mountains
The Hengduan Mountains () are a group of mountain ranges in southwest China, southwest China that connect the southeast portions of the Tibetan Plateau with the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau. The Hengduan Mountains are primarily large north-south ...
on the
China–Myanmar border) actually continue another 300 km to the east.
Location
Namcha Barwa is in an isolated part of southeastern Tibet rarely visited by outsiders. It stands inside the ''Great Bend'' of the
Yarlung Tsangpo River as the river enters its notable
gorge
A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...
across the
Himalaya
The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...
, emerging as the ''Siang'' and becoming the
Brahmaputra
The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Southwestern China, Northeastern India, and Bangladesh. It is known as Brahmaputra or Luit in Assamese, Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, and ...
. Namcha Barwa's sister peak ''
Gyala Peri'' at rises across the gorge to the north-north-west (NNW).
Notable features
Namcha rises above the Yarlung Tsangpo.
[''Namjagbarwa Mountaineering Map'' (1:50,000), Chinese Research Institute of Surveying and Mapping, China Mountaineering Association, 1990, .] After ''
Batura Sar'' in the
Karakoram
The Karakoram () is a mountain range in the Kashmir region spanning the border of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwestern extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range is withi ...
was climbed in 1976, Namcha Barwa became the
highest unclimbed independent mountain in the world,
[
]
until it was finally climbed in 1992.
In addition to being the 27th highest mountain in the world, Namcha Barwa is the third most
prominent peak in the Himalayas after
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 ...
and
Nanga Parbat
Nanga Parbat () (; ), known locally as Diamer (), is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth and its summit is at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-a ...
.
Frank Kingdon-Ward described in the 1920s "a quaint prophecy among the
Kongbo Tibetans that Namche Barwa will one day fall into the Tsangpo gorge and block the river, which will then turn aside and flow over the Doshong La
ass
Ass most commonly refers to:
* Buttocks (in informal American English)
* Donkey or ass, ''Equus africanus asinus''
**any other member of the subgenus ''Asinus''
Ass or ASS may also refer to:
Art and entertainment
* Ass (album), ''Ass'' (albu ...
This is recorded in a book by some fabulous person whose image may be seen in the little
gompa uddhist monasteryat Payi, in
Pome
In botany, a pome is a type of fruit produced by flowering plants in the subtribe Malinae of the family Rosaceae. Pome fruits consist of a central "core" containing multiple small seeds, which is enveloped by a tough membrane and surrounded by a ...
." (126–127) (See
Beyul for the reason behind the prophecy and
Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava ('Born from a Lotus'), also known as Guru Rinpoche ('Precious Guru'), was a legendary tantric Buddhist Vajracharya, Vajra master from Oddiyana. who fully revealed the Vajrayana in Tibet, circa 8th – 9th centuries... He is consi ...
or another
Tertön
In Tibetan Buddhism, a Tertön () is a person who is a discoverer of ancient hidden texts or '' terma''. Many tertöns are considered to be incarnations of the twenty five main disciples of Padmasambhava ( Guru Rinpoche), who foresaw a dark time in ...
for the "fabulous person whose image may be seen in the little gompa").
Climbing history
Namcha Barwa was located in 1912 by British surveyors but the area remained virtually unvisited until Chinese alpinists began attempting the peak in the 1980s. Although they scouted multiple routes, they did not reach the summit. In 1990 a Chinese-Japanese expedition reconnoitered the peak. Another joint expedition reached in 1991 but lost member Hiroshi Onishi in an avalanche. The next year a third Chinese-Japanese expedition established six camps on the South Ridge over intermediate Nai Peng (), reaching the summit on October 30.
Eleven climbers reached the summit.
U.K.
Alpine Club
Alpine clubs are typically large social clubs that revolve around climbing, hiking, and other outdoor activities. Many alpine clubs also take on aspects typically reserved for local sport associations, providing education and training courses, se ...
's Himalayan Index lists no further ascents.
See also
*
Geology of the Himalaya
*
Indus River
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...
– the erosion at
Nanga Parbat
Nanga Parbat () (; ), known locally as Diamer (), is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth and its summit is at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-a ...
is causing rapid uplifting of lower crustal rocks
*
Karakoram fault system – major
active fault
An active fault is a fault that is likely to become the source of another earthquake sometime in the future. Geologists commonly consider faults to be active if there has been movement observed or evidence of seismic activity during the last 10,0 ...
system within the Himalayas
*
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 ...
*
Paleotethys
*
Sutlej River
The Sutlej River or the Satluj River is a major river in Asia, flowing through China, India and Pakistan, and is the longest of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is also known as ''Satadru''; and is the easternmost tributary of th ...
– similar small-scale erosion to the Indus
*
Tibetan Plateau
The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or Qingzang Plateau, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central Asia, Central, South Asia, South, and East Asia. Geographically, it is located to the north of H ...
to the North (also discussed in
Geography of Tibet)
*
Zanskar
Zanskar, Zahar (locally) or Zangskar, is the southwestern region of Kargil district in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. The administrative centre of Zanskar is Padum. Zanskar, together with the rest of Ladakh, was briefly a part of the kin ...
is a subdistrict of the
Kargil district
Kargil district is a district in Indian-administered Ladakh in the Kashmir#Dispute, disputed Kashmir-region,The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the ...
, which lies in the Indian union territory of
Ladakh
Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...
References
External links
Chinese expeditionin the 1980s
*
{{Authority control
Mountains of Tibet
Seven-thousanders of the Himalayas