Kunlun

Mountains

The Kunlun Mountains[a] constitute one of the longest mountain chains in

Asia, extending for more than 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi). In the broadest
sense, the chain forms the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau south of
the Tarim Basin. Located in Western China, the Kunlun Mountains have
been known as the "Forefather of Mountains" in China.[1][2]

Kunlun Mountains
View of Western Kunlun Shan from the
Tibet-Xinjiang highway

Highest point
Peak Liushi Shan
Elevation 7,167 m
(23,514 ft)
Geography

Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap

Country China
Region(s) Xinjiang, Qinghai,
Tibet
Range 36°N 84°E (https://geohack.tool
coordinates ohack.php?pagename=Kunlun_M
params=36_N_84_E_type:mou
n:CN_scale:300000)

Borders on Gobi Desert

Kunlun Mountains

"Kunlun" in simplified (top) and

traditional (bottom) Chinese characters

Chinese name

Simplified Chinese 昆仑⼭

Traditional Chinese 崑崙⼭

Postal Kwenlun
 Mountains

Transcriptions [show]

Tibetan name

Tibetan !་#་རི་&ད
Transcriptions [show]

Uyghur name

Uyghur ‫قۇرۇم تاغ‬

‫تىزمىسى‬

The exact definition of the Kunlun Mountains varies over time. Older
sources used Kunlun to mean the mountain belt that runs across the
center of China,[3] that is, Altyn Tagh along with the Qilian and Qin
Mountains. Recent sources[4] have the Kunlun range forming most of the
south side of the Tarim Basin and then continuing east, south of the Altyn
Tagh. Sima Qian (Records of the Grand Historian, scroll 123) says that
Emperor Wu of Han sent men to find the source of the Yellow River and
gave the name Kunlun to the mountains at its source. The name seems to
have originated as a semi-mythical location in the classical Chinese text
Classic of Mountains and Seas.

Extent

Kunlun range

Karakash River in the western

Kunlun Mountains, seen from the
Tibet-Xinjiang highway

From the Pamirs of Tajikistan, the Kunlun Mountains run east through
southern Xinjiang to Qinghai province.[5] They stretch along the southern
edge of what is now called the Tarim Basin, the infamous Taklamakan
desert, and the Gobi Desert. A number of important rivers flow from the
range including the Karakash River ('Black Jade River') and the
Yurungkash River ('White Jade River'), which flow through the Khotan
Oasis into the Taklamakan Desert. To the south of the Kunlun is the
sparsely populated Changtang region, which forms part of the Tibetan
Plateau.
 The Kunlun Pass

Altyn-Tagh or Altun Range is one of the chief northern ranges of the

Kunlun. Its northeastern extension Qilian Shan is another main northern
range of the Kunlun. In the south main extension is the Min Shan. Bayan
Har Mountains, a southern branch of the Kunlun Mountains, forms the
watershed between the catchment basins of China's two longest rivers,
the Yangtze River and the Yellow River.

The highest mountain of the Kunlun Mountains is the Kunlun Goddess

Peak (7,167 m) in the Keriya area of the western Kunlun Mountains.

Some authorities claim that the Kunlun extends further northwest-wards

as far as Kongur Tagh (7,649 m) and the famous Muztagh Ata (7,546 m).

But these mountains are physically much more closely linked to the Pamir
group (ancient Mount Imeon). The Arka Tagh (Arch Mountain) is in the
center of the Kunlun Mountains; its highest points are Ulugh Muztagh
(6,973 m) and Bukadaban Feng (6,860 m). In the eastern Kunlun
Mountains the highest peaks are Yuzhu Peak (6,224 m) and Amne Machin
[also Dradullungshong] (6,282 m); the latter is the major eastern peak of
the Kunlun Mountains and is thus considered as the eastern edge of the
Kunlun Mountains.

The mountain range formed at the northern edges of the Cimmerian Plate
during its collision, in the Late Triassic, with Siberia, which resulted in the
closing of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean.

The range has very few roads and in its 3,000 km length is crossed by only
two. In the west, Highway 219 traverses the range en route from Yecheng,
Xinjiang to Lhatse, Tibet. Further east, Highway 109 crosses between
Lhasa and Golmud.

Kunlun Volcanic Group

Over 70 volcanic cones form the Kunlun Volcanic Group. They are not
volcanic mountains, but cones. As such, they are not counted among the
world volcanic mountain peaks. The group, however, musters the heights
of 5,808 metres (19,055 ft) above sea level (35.5°N 80.2°E (https://geohac
k.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Kunlun_Mountains&params=35.
5_N_80.2_E_type:mountain)). If they were considered volcanic mountains,
they would constitute the highest volcano in Asia and China and second
highest in the Eastern Hemisphere (after Mount Kilimanjaro) and one of
Volcanic Seven Summits by elevation. (Mount Damavand is the highest
volcano in Asia, not the Kunlun cones.) The last known eruption in the
volcanic group was on May 27, 1951.[6]

Mythology
 Peak in Kunlun range

Legendary and mystical mountains are a long-standing aspect of Chinese

civilization. Kunlun is originally the name of a mythical mountain believed
to be a Taoist paradise.

Kunlun is a semi-mythical region not far from the source of the Yellow
River.[7] The Kunlun Mountains entered Chinese ideology during the
Warring States period (475–221 BCE), and have become closely
integrated into Chinese culture.[8]

In the Book of Mountains and Seas, the Kunlun Mountains are mentioned:

崑崙之丘，是實惟帝下之都，神陸
吾司之。
Which means "The hill of Kunlun, which is the capital of the emperor, and
the god of the land."

Gu Jiegang divides the Chinese mythology system into the Kunlun system
and the Penglai system based on the eastern and western regions. He
believes that the myth of Kunlun

"originates in the western plateau,

and its magical and magnificent
stories spread to the east, and
then follow the vast and boundless
sea. The combination of these
natural conditions has formed the
Penglai mythology system in the
coastal areas of Yan, Wu, Qi, and
Yue."[9]
In mythology, Kunlun Mountain is the birthplace and ancestral place of the
Chinese nation. In mythology, Kunlun Mountain is the center of heaven and
earth. It goes up to the sky and is the staircase to the sky. The "Kunlun
Mythology" system takes Kunlun Mountain as an iconic place, and mainly
focuses on the myths and stories of related characters such as the Yellow
Emperor and the Queen Mother of the West (Xi Wang Mu). Stories such as
Kuafu chasing the sun, Gonggong's anger touching Buzhou Mountain, and
Chang'e flying to the moon all originate from Kunlun mythology.

Mao Dun pointed out:

 "The primitive people imagined
that the gods lived in a group, and
they also imagined that the gods
lived on the extremely high
mountains, so the highest
mountain in the territory became
the residence of the gods in
mythology. The mystical idea of
this is what happened. The
Chinese myth is equivalent to that
of Kunlun.
According to legend, King Mu (976–922 BCE, Zhou dynasty) was the first
to visit this paradise. There he supposedly found the Jade Palace of the
Yellow Emperor, the mythical originator of Chinese culture, and met Hsi
Wang Mu (Xi Wang Mu, the 'Spirit Mother of the West' usually called the
'Queen Mother of the West') who also had her mythical abode in these
mountains. She was the object of a traditional religious cult which reached
its peak in the Han dynasty.
See also

Sacred Mountains of China

Notes

a. /ˈkʌnlʌn/
simplified Chinese: 昆仑
⼭; traditional Chinese: 崑
崙⼭; pinyin: Kūnlún Shān,
pronounced [kʰwǝ́nlwǝ̌n
ʂán]
Uyghur: ‫ﯩﺰﻣﯩﴗ‬%‫ﺎغ ٮ‬%‫ڡﯘرۇم ٮ‬% ,
Қурум Тағ Тизмиси,
 romanized: Qurum Tagh
Tizmisi, pronounced
[qʰʊˈɾʊm tʰaʁ tʰɨzmɨˈsɨ]
Kyrgyz: ‫وو‬%‫ﻟﯘن ٮ‬-‫ڡﯘن‬% , Кунь-
Лунь Тоо, romanized: Kun-
Lun Too, pronounced
[ˌkʰʊnˈɫʊn tʰɔː]
Mongolian: Хөндлөн Уул,
romanized: Khöndlön Uul,
pronounced [ˈxɵntɬ͡ ǝɴ
ʊːɮ]
Standard Tibetan: !་#་རི་&ད

References
1. "Kunlun Mountains" (http://ww
w.foreignercn.com/index.php?
option=com_content&view=art
icle&id=8400:kunlun-mountai
ns&catid=121:travel-in-qingha
i&Itemid=278) . Retrieved
April 1, 2024.
2. "Kunlun Mountain Range - A
Forever Legend" (https://www.
hkywa.com/wp-content/upload
s/2021/07/Non-fiction.pdf)
(PDF). Retrieved April 1, 2024.
3. Richard, L. (1908).
Comprehensive Geography of
 the Chinese Empire.
OCLC 2281016 (https://searc
h.worldcat.org/oclc/2281016)
.
4. National Geographic Atlas of
China, 2008
5. "Kunlun Mountains" (https://w
ww.britannica.com/EBchecke
d/topic/325007/Kunlun-Mount
ains) . Encyclopædia
Britannica. Retrieved
2009-11-19.
6. "Kunlun Volcanic Group" (http
s://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cf
 m?vn=304030) . Global
Volcanism Program.
Smithsonian Institution.
Retrieved 2014-03-15.
7. 贾海建. 神怪⼩说与⼭岳信仰关
系研究 《中央⺠族⼤学》 2011
年博⼠论⽂ (http://cdmd.cnki.c
om.cn/Article/CDMD-10052-1
011159869.htm) .
8. Peng, Peng (1 October 2021).
"Decentralizing the origin of
civilization: Early
archaeological efforts in China"
(https://www.journals.uchicag
 o.edu/doi/10.1086/715935) .
History of Humanities. 6 (2):
515–548. doi:10.1086/715935
(https://doi.org/10.1086%2F71
5935) . ISSN 2379-3163 (http
s://search.worldcat.org/issn/2
379-3163) .
S2CID 244133983 (https://ap
i.semanticscholar.org/CorpusI
D:244133983) .
9. 许洋洋. 中国神话的地域⽂化透
视 (http://a.xueshu.baidu.com/
usercenter/paper/show?paperi
d=321c70e250531e9c28374
 365de16c77c) .

Further reading

Munro-Hay, Stuart Aksum.

Edinburgh: University Press. 1991.
ISBN 0-7486-0106-6.

External links

Kropotkin, Peter Alexeivitch;

Bealby, John Thomas (1911).
"Kuen-lun" (https://en.wikisource.
org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6
dia_Britannica/Kuen-lun) .