{"id":2306,"date":"2025-12-03T04:42:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T04:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/?p=2306"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:45:24","slug":"the-sleeping-giant-of-eastern-nepal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/?p=2306","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Sleeping Giant’ of Nepal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gobinda Prasad Pokharel<\/em><\/p>\n

Today, a photograph released by the Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) caught my eye. It was a captivating shot of Kumbhakarna Himal. Struck by its beauty, I found myself digging deeper into the story behind this peak. What I discovered was a fascinating blend of culture, mythology and mountaineering history that I felt compelled to share.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While many of us know it as Kumbhakarna (or internationally as Jannu), the indigenous Limbu community calls this mountain ‘Phoktanglungma.’<\/strong><\/p>\n

The etymology is beautiful in its simplicity: in the Limbu language, ‘Phoktang’<\/em> means ‘shoulder’ and ‘Lungma’<\/em> means ‘mountain.’ The name perfectly describes its physical structure which resembles a massive human shoulder. For the Limbu people, this is not just a geographical feature but a deity and a sacred site of worship. The mountain holds such significance in the district that a local government body, Phoktanglung Rural Municipality (currently chaired by Mr. Rajan Limbu), is named after it.<\/p>\n

For Hindus, the mountain is linked to the Ramayana<\/em>. It is named after Kumbhakarna<\/strong>, the giant brother of Ravana, known for sleeping for months at a time.<\/p>\n

The name is incredibly fitting. If you view the mountain from Phungling (the district headquarters of Taplejung) or nearby ridges, the skyline creates the silhouette of a colossal man lying on his back\u2014a sleeping giant forever resting in the Himalayas.<\/p>\n

Rising to an elevation of 7,710 meters Kumbhakarna is the 32nd highest peak in the world. Situated to the west of the Kangchenjunga himal, it acts as a massive barrier, shielding the Kangchenjunga area from strong wind currents.<\/p>\n

Despite not being an 8,000-meter peak, it is renowned for its technical difficulty. The first successful ascent was recorded in April 1962 by a French expedition team including Ren\u00e9 Desmaison. It is important to note the critical role of the Nepalese climbers in this historic feat: the summit team included two legendary Sherpas, Gyalzen Mitchung Sherpa and Wangdi Sherpa.<\/p>\n

Even today, Kumbhakarna continues to test the world’s best climbers. Just recently, on October 15 of this year, a new chapter was written in its history. Alpinists Benjamin V\u00e9drines and Nicolas Jean successfully summited the mountain via the East Face\u2014a remarkable achievement on a notoriously difficult peak.<\/p>\n

Whether you see it as the sacred Phoktanglungma<\/em> or the sleeping Kumbhakarna<\/em>, this mountain remains one of the most majestic symbols of Eastern Nepal.<\/p>\n

3rd December, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gobinda Prasad Pokharel Today, a photograph released by the Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) caught my eye. It was a captivating shot of Kumbhakarna Himal. Struck by its beauty, I found myself digging deeper into the story behind this peak. What I discovered was a fascinating blend of culture, mythology and mountaineering history that I felt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-84"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2350,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions\/2350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpokharel.com.np\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}