Attitudes toward Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 465

Rousseau's writings had an almost revolutionary impact. Although the love of nature
was not new, Rousseau's expression of it, particularly with respect to mountains, greatly
increased popular appreciation of Switzerland as a place of beauty. Among those who
came under Rousseau's spell were the famous German philosopher and poet Goethe,
and the English poet Wordsworth, who was perhaps the greatest interpreter of nature
in all of literature. Rousseau also influenced Horace Benedict de Saussure, the Swiss
doctor who offered a prize for the first ascent of Mont Blanc—accomplished by Jacques
Balmat and Dr. Michel Paccard in 1786—and is considered the father of Alpinism. After
four attempts between 1760 and 1787, he himself succeeded in reaching the summit
in 1787. It is no coincidence that the birth of modern mountaineering coincided with
the emergence of Romantic views of the Alps as symbols of the infinite and the sublime
(Bernbaum 1997). In a sense, we can say that one sacred view of mountains—a positive,
divine one—had replaced another, negative view of mountains as demonic places that
had prevailed during the Middle Ages.
De Saussure initiated a great boom in scientific interest in mountains; in the follow-
ing half-century, for scientific purposes, Swiss alpinists ascended many other mountains
never before climbed (Noyce 1950). By the middle of the nineteenth century, however,
the scientific focus gave way to the English sense of sport. When Hudson, Hadow, and
Lord Douglas lost their lives on the Matterhorn in 1865, the disaster seemed to serve
as a challenge rather than a deterrent, and in the years that followed, English climbers
and tourists swarmed into the remote regions of the Alps (Peattie 1936; Schama 1995).
The modern period of mountain adoration had begun.
The East
The development of attitudes toward mountains in the East contrasts greatly with that
of the West. Attitudes in both civilizations changed from initial feelings of awe and
aversion to admiration and love (Tuan 1974; Bernbaum 1997), but in the East, the ap-
preciation of mountains began very early. According to the origin myth of the Korean
people, they are descended from the union of a sky god and a bear woman on the sacred
mountain of Paekdu (Henthorn 1971). In Japan, China, Tibet, and India, mountains have
long been adored and worshipped. Mountains were considered sacred in China at least
2,000 years before the birth of Christ (Sullivan 1962; DeSilva 1967; Bernbaum 1997).
Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and Hinduism all incorporated mountain
reverence into their beliefs.
The impact of mountains on early Chinese culture was profound. The mountain
ranges that course through China were considered to be the body of a cosmic being (ac-
cording to some, a dragon), the rocks his bones, the water his blood, the vegetation his
hair, and the clouds and mists his breath (Sullivan 1962: 1). This belief probably sprang
from the ancient cult of the Earth and, although largely replaced by other concepts, re-
mains basic to Chinese philosophy. It also had to do with ancient views of mountains as
divine sources of rain and water on which the agrarian society of China depended for
its existence. Man is viewed as an integral part of nature. Inanimate objects have spirits
and souls, just as do animate objects.
At first, there were four sacred mountains in China situated in the four quarters of
the compass (later a fifth was added in the center): The eastern mountain, T'ai Shan,