Mount Kailash | |
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The north face of Mount Kailash
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Highest point | |
Elevation | 6,638 m (21,778 ft) |
Prominence | 1,319 m (4,327 ft) |
Coordinates | 31°4′0″N 81°18′45″E / 31.06667°N 81.31250°ECoordinates: 31°4′0″N 81°18′45″E / 31.06667°N 81.31250°E |
Geography | |
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Parent range | Transhimalaya |
Mount Kailash (also Mount Kailas; Kangrinboqê or Gang Rinpoche (Tibetan: གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ) (Sanskrit: कैलासः) (Kailāsaḥ) is a peak in the Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains), which forms part of the Transhimalaya in Tibet. It lies near the source of some of the longest rivers in Asia: the Indus River, the Sutlej River (a major tributary of the Indus River), the Brahmaputra River, and the Karnali River (a tributary of the River Ganga). It is considered a sacred place in four religions: Bön, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. The mountain lies near Lake Manasarovar and Lake Rakshastal in Tibet Autonomous Region, China.
The mountain is known as either Kailāśa (कैलाश) or Kailāsa (कैलास) in Sanskrit. The name may be derived from the word kelāsa (केलास), which means "crystal". In his Tibetan-English dictionary, Chandra (1902: p. 32) identifies the entry for 'kai la sha' (Wylie: kai la sha) which is a loan word from Sanskrit 'kailāśa' (Devanagari: कैलाश).