Himalayan Journals — Volume 2: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
History
Himalayan Journals — Volume 2: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains
A long sloping spur sweeps from the north of Donkia first north, and
then west to Bhomtso, rising to a height of more than 20,000 feet
without snow. Over this spur the celebrated Chumulari* [Some doubt
still hangs over the identity of this mountain, chiefly owing to
Turner's having neglected to observe his geographical positions.
I saw a much loftier mountain than this, bearing from Bhomtso north
87 degrees out, and it was called Chumulari by the Tibetan Sepoys;
but it does not answer to Turner's description of an isolated snowy
peak, such as he approached within three miles; and though in the
latitude he assigned to it, is fully sixty miles to the east of his
route. A peak, similar to the one he degcribes, is seen from Tonglo
and Sinchul (see vol. i., chapters v and viii); this is the one
alluded to above, and it is identified by both Tibetans and Lepchas
at Dorjiling as the true Chumulari, and was measured by Colonel
Waugh, who placed it in lat. 27 degrees 49 minutes north, long. 89
degrees 18 minutes east. The latter position, though fifteen miles
south of what Turner gives it, is probably correct; as Pemberton
found that Turner had put other places in Bhotan twenty miles too far
north. Moreover, in saying that it is visible from Purnea in the
plains of Bengal, Turner refers to Kinchinjunga, whose elevation was
then unknown. Dr. Campbell ("Bengal As. Soc. Jour.," 1848), describes
Chumulari from oral information, as an isolated mountain encircled by
twenty-one goompas, and perambulated by pilgrims in five days; the
Lachoong Phipun, on the other hand, who was a Lama, and well
acquainted with the country, affirmed that Chumulari has many tops,
and cannot be perambulated; but that detached peaks near it may be,
and that it is to a temple near one of these that pilgrims resort.
Again, the natives use these names very vaguely, and as that of
Kinchinjunga is often applied equally to all or any part of the group
of snows between the Lachen and Tambur rivers, so may the term
Chumulari have been used vaguely to Captain Turner or to me. I have
been told that an isolated, snow-topped, venerated mountain rises
about twenty miles south of the true Chumulari, and is called
"Sakya-khang" (Sakya's snowy mountain), which may be that seen from
Dorjiling; but I incline to consider Campbell's and Waugh's mountain
as the one alluded to by Turner, and it is to it that I here refer as
bearing north 115 degrees 30 minutes east from Bhomtso.] peeps,
bearing south-east, and from its isolated position and sharpness
looking low and small; it appeared quite near, though thirty-nine
miles distant.
North-east of Chumulari, and far beyond it, are several meridional
ranges of very much loftier snowy mountains, which terminated the
view of the snowy Himalaya; the distance embraced being fully 150
miles, and perhaps much more. Of one of these eastern masses* [] I
afterwards took
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