KURT BOECK (1855–1933)
Shishapangma / Gosainthān (8,027 m - 26,335 ft)
China (Autonomous region of Tibet)
In Das Gosainthangebirge (Shishapangma), Photo, 1898
The mountain
Shishapangma / Gosainthān (8,027 m - 26,335 ft) is the 14th highest mountain in the world. It was the last 8,000 m peak to be climbed, due to its location entirely within Tibet Autonomous Region. It is the only eight-thousander entirely within Chinese territory, located in south-central Tibet, five kilometres from the border with Nepal.
Shishapangma / Gosainthān was first climbed via the Northern Route on 2 May 1964 by a Chinese expedition led by Xu Jing. In addition to Xǔ Jìng, the summit team consisted of Zhāng Jùnyán, Wang Fuzhou, Wū Zōngyuè, Chén Sān, Soinam Dorjê, Chéng Tiānliàng, Migmar Zhaxi, Dorjê, and Yún Dēng.
Shishapangma / Gosainthān is also the highest peak in the Jugal Himal which is contiguous with and often considered part of Langtang Himal. The Jugal/Langtang Himal straddles the Tibet/Nepal border.
Tibetologist Guntram Hazod records a local story that explains the mountain's name in terms of its literal meaning in the Standard Tibetan language: shisha, which means "meat of an animal that died of natural causes" and sbangma which means "malt dregs left over from brewing beer".
According to the story, one year a heavy snowfall killed most of the animals at pasture. All that the people living near the mountain had to eat was the meat of the dead animals and the malt dregs left over from brewing beer, and so the mountain was named Shisha Pangma (shisha sbangma), signifiying "meat of dead animals and malty dregs".
The Sanskrit name of the mountain, Gosainthan, means "place of the saint" or "Abode of God".
Still, its most common name is Shishapangma.
The artist
Kurt Karl Alexander Oskar Boeck was a German theater actor, climber, travel writer ans eventually early photographer. He began as an actor but in 1887when he had the opportunity to accompany a research expedition to Asia, especially to Persia and the Caucasus, he could not resist the temptation.
Researching and traveling in lesser-known, far-off lands told him so much that when he returned home from Asia he did not find a commitment that suited his wishes, he turned completely to this interesting profession. First, Boeck undertook in 1890 at his own expense an expedition to the Himalayas, where he took the glacier leader Hans Kerner from Tyrol and drove in the years 1893, 1895 and 1898-1899 again to India to thoroughly get to know the country in all parts. Boeck's lectures in numerous national and international associations on these and his other travels in Burma, China, America, Japan, Siberia, etc., have made him, as well as his articles in magazines, known to the general public.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
