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Kanchenjunga

Kanchenjunga (also called Kangchenjunga, Kangchen Dzö-nga, Kachendzonga, or Kangchanfanga) is a mountain at 27°42' N, 88°08' E in the Himalayas on the Nepal-Sikkim border in the Taplejung district.

Kanchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world and the second highest in Nepal. Kanchenjunga is translated along the lines of "Five Treasures of the Snow" as it contains five peaks over 8,000 metres with the main peak at 8,586 metres (28,169 feet). Up until 1852, Kanchenjunga was believed to be the highest mountain in the world. Calculations made from the British 1849 Great Trigonometric Survey makes Mount Everest the highest and Kanchenjunga third highest.

Kanchenjunga was first climbed in 1955 by George Band and Joe Brown of a British expedition. The British expedition honored the beliefs of the Sikkimese who believe the summit sacred, by stopping a few feet short of the actual summit. All successful summit parties since then have followed this tradition until recently.

Climbing History

See Kangchenjunga History for a more detailed account.

The Kanchanjunga Conservation Area (KCA) covers 2035 km2 surrounding the mountain on the Nepalese side.

See also: Eight-thousander, List of climbers, List of mountains


As Kanchenjungha a film directed by Satyajit Ray in 1962, his first original screenplay and colour film. The film is about a group of rich Bengalis on vacation near Kanchenjunga.


Kanchenjunga is a visual RAD tool for producing Java client applications for use with Postgres95.