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Dêqên County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, on the Yunnan–Tibet border (Meili Xueshan, Hengduan Mountains) · China
Meili Snow Mountain (Kawagarbo)
Meili Snow Mountain, whose highest summit is Kawagarbo (also spelled Kawagebo), rises on the Yunnan–Tibet border where the watershed between the Salween and Mekong rivers reaches 6,740 meters. Revered as one of the most sacred peaks in the Tibetan world, it draws an estimated 20,000 pilgrims a year who undertake a roughly 240 km circumambulation (kora) around the massif rather than attempt its summit. The mountain remains unclimbed: after a first attempt in 1987, a joint Kyoto University Academic Alpine Club and Chinese expedition was struck by a nighttime avalanche in January 1991 that killed all seventeen climbers — one of the deadliest mountaineering accidents in history. In 2001, the local Chinese government formally banned all future climbing attempts on Kawagarbo on cultural and religious grounds, honoring the Tibetan belief that a successful ascent would drive away the mountain's protector deity. It stands as one of the world's highest peaks closed to climbing by law rather than by lack of a successful attempt.
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Elevation, prominence, coordinates and first-ascent facts are checked against published references and official sources. Where a fact isn't clearly documented, we show it as unknown rather than estimate.
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