Mountain · China
Shishapangma
Shishapangma is 8 027 metres high, the lowest of the fourteen mountains above 8 000 metres, and the only one that lies entirely inside Tibet in China.
Picture credit: GerthMichael (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Dirk Groeger (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Shishapangma?
Shishapangma is part of the Jugal Himal, Himalayas.
You will find it in: China.
Summit: 28.353° N, 85.779° E
The story behind it
Being the only eight-thousander entirely in Tibet decided its history. After 1950 Tibet was closed to expeditions from other countries, and it stayed closed for almost thirty years, so nobody from outside could even get to the mountain. A Chinese expedition led by Xu Jing reached the summit on 2 May 1964 — which makes Shishapangma the last of the fourteen to be climbed, ten years after the first of them. The mountain still causes arguments today, because it has more than one top. Many climbers stop at the central summit, 8 008 metres, since the true main summit at 8 027 metres lies at the end of a long, knife-thin ridge. The Himalayan record keeper Elizabeth Hawley used to ask people to prove which one they had actually reached.
Find it on the globe
Shishapangma is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Why was Shishapangma climbed last?
Because it is the only one of the fourteen that stands entirely in Tibet, which was closed to foreign expeditions after 1950. Chinese climbers reached the summit in 1964, ten years after the first eight-thousander was climbed.
Does Shishapangma have two summits?
It has a central summit at 8 008 metres and the true main summit at 8 027, joined by a long, very narrow ridge. Many climbers turn round at the central one, which is why people have argued for years about who has really been to the top.
What does Shishapangma mean?
It is Tibetan, and it is usually explained as the crest above the grassy plains. In Nepal the mountain has a second name, Gosainthan, which comes from Sanskrit and means the place of the holy one.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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