The Sepu Kangri (; also ''Sapu Mountain'' from Chinese) is a mountain in

Biru County Biru County (; ) is the most populated county within Nagqu of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The name means "female yak". Either of the following pronunciations can be considered correct in Standard Tibetan: ìru~ ìru(conventionally written '' ...

Nagqu Nagqu (also Naqu, Nakchu, or Nagchu; ; ) is a prefecture-level city in the north of the Chinese autonomous region of Tibet. On May 7, 2018, the former Nagqu Prefecture was officially declared the sixth prefecture-level city in Tibet after Lhasa, ...

prefecture,

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of ...

. The mountain is east-northeast of

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhas ...

and east-southeast of

Nagqu Town Nagqu, Nagchu in original Tibetan or Naqu (), also known as Nagchuka or Nagquka, is a town in northern Tibet, seat of the prefecture-level city of Nagqu, approximately by road north-east of the capital Lhasa, within the People's Republic of Chin ...

. With a height of , it forms the highest point in the eastern part of the

Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains The Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains (officially spelt Nyainqêntanglha Mountains in Chinese) are a long mountain range, and subrange of the Transhimalaya System, located in Tibet and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Geography One source ...

. The full name of the mountain is Sepu Kunglha Karpo, meaning "white snow god". The mountain is sacred in Tibetan

Bon ''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initially developed in t ...

tradition. The mountain is referred to as () in that context. There is a Bon monastery that is more than half millennium old in the valley below.

Climbing history

Chris Bonington Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL (born 6 August 1934) is a British mountaineer. His career has included nineteen expeditions to the Himalayas, including four to Mount Everest. Early life and expeditions Bonington's father, ...

and

Charles Clarke Charles Rodway Clarke (born 21 September 1950) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich South from 1997 until 2010, and served as Home Secretary from December 2004 until May 2006. Early life ...

explored the mountain in 1996. In the following two years they tried unsuccessfully to climb Sepu Kangri.Tibet's Secret Mountain: the Triumph of Sepu Kangri
AAJ, 2000 Finally, on October 2, 2002

Carlos Buhler Carlos Buhler (born October 17, 1954 in Harrison, New York) is one of America's leading high altitude mountaineers. Buhler's specialty is high-standard mountaineering characterized by small teams, no oxygen, minimal gear and equipment, and relative ...

and Mark Newcomb succeeded in

first ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they e ...

References

Six-thousanders of the Transhimalayas Six-thousanders of China {{Tibet-geo-stub