Amne Machin

About

Amne Machin, Anyi Machen, or Anyê Maqên ("Grandfather Pomra") is the highest peak of a mountain range of the same name in the southeast of Qinghai province, China. It is revered in Tibetan Buddhism as the home of the chief indigenous deity of Amdo, Machen Pomra.

The entire Amne Machin range is an eastern extension of the Kunlun Mountains, a major mountain system of Asia. The Amne Machin range runs in the general northwest-to-southeast direction in eastern Qinghai (Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and the adjacent areas of the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture) and the southwestern corner of Gansu's Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The existence of the ridge results in one of the great bends of the Yellow River. The river first flows for several hundreds of kilometers toward the east and southeast, along the southwestern side of the Amne Machin Range. In so doing it crosses the entire length of Golog Prefecture, and reaches the borders of Gansu and Sichuan. Then the river turns almost 180 degrees to the left, passing to the northeastern side of the Amne Machin, and flows toward the northwest for 200 to 300 kilometers (120 to 190 miles) through several prefectures of the northeastern Qinghai. The Amne Machin Peak (the highest point of the range) is located in Maqên County of Golog Prefecture. Its elevation is estimated at 6,282 metres (20,610 ft). A part of the range around its highest peak has been declared a section of the Sanjiangyuan ("Sources of Three Rivers") National Nature Reserve.

The mountain was known to the ancient Chinese as Mount Jishi (, , Jīshíshān). The Northern Wei-era commentary on the Han-era River Classic stated that the mountain was the site where Yu the Great tamed the Yellow River and that it was considered part of Longxi Commandery, located 1740 li (724 km or 449.9 mi) from Kunlun Mountain and 5000 li (2,080 km or 1,292 mi) from the Luo. The massif had long been considered a sacred mountain and a place of pilgrimage, when before the Communist takeover up to 10,000 Golok people would make the 120-mile (193 km) circumambulation of the mountain each year. The first European to describe the mountain was the British explorer Brigadier-General George Pereira on his expedition on foot from Peking to Lhasa of 1921–1922, sometimes reckoned one of the great geographical discoveries of the twentieth century. Pereira, who saw Amne Machin from about 70 miles (113 km) away, thought its "height must be at least 25,000 feet [7,600 m], and might be anything; it dwarfed all other mountains near it." However, the massif remained unclimbed until 1960. The Amne Machin mountains had been overflown by a few American pilots who overestimated the elevation to 30,000 feet (9,100 m). A 1930 article of National Geographic estimated the peak elevation to be 28,000 feet [8,500 m] according to the report of Joseph Rock, an American botanist and explorer who, despite death threats from the Golog Tibetans, had ventured to within 80 km (50 mi) of the mountain. For a while, the mountains were considered as a possible place for a peak higher than Mount Everest. In 1948 an Associated Press journalist participated in a lengthy flyover; his airliner's Chinese pilot was American-born Moon Chin, who had flown "over the Hump" during World War II. Chin's instrumentation included radar and four altimeters; the mountain's altitude measurement, made "as we flew less than 100 feet [30 meters] above its summit," was "over 20,400 feet [6,220 meters]."

Joseph Rock downgraded his estimate publicly in 1956 to "not much more than 21,000 feet [6,400 meters]," he did give a detailed description of the peaks:[T]he Am-nye Ma-Chhen Range has three prominent peaks; the southern pyramid (second highest) is called Spyan-ras-gzigs (Chenrezig), the Avalokitesvara, of which the Dalai Lama is believed to be an incarnation; the central lower peak, a smaller pyramid, Am-nye Ma-Chhen; and the northern, which is the highest, a huge, round, broad dome called dGra-hdul-rlung-shog (Dra-dul-lung-shog) Victor of enemies wind wing ... The dome in the north is the highest part, but it is not so imposing as the large pyramid at the southern end. By 1980 Anyi Machen had been resurveyed at 6,282 metres (20,610 ft).

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.