Attitudes toward Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 470

full moon in the spring. This ceremony has deep religious aspects, but it is also a vehicle
for exhilaration and glorification of the way of life of a very proud people in the highest
mountains in the world (Kohn 2001). Mount Everest itself is a sacred mountain, albeit a
minor one. The Tibetan name of Mount Everest, Chomolungma or Jomolangma, is short
for the name of the goddess of the peak, Jomo Miyolangsangma, one of the Five Sisters
of Long Life, whom Tibetans and Sherpas invoke for the lesser mundane blessings of
long life, food, and wealth (Bernbaum 1999; Fig. 9.4).
FIGURE 9.3 Mount Kailas, 6,714 m (22,028 ft), the most sacred mountain in the world for more than
a billion people in Asia. Followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and the indigenous Tibetan
religion of Bon all revere the remote peak, which lies in northwest Tibet and is the focal point of
one of the longest and most arduous pilgrimages in the world. (Photo by E. Bernbaum.)