10 TALLEST MOUNTAINS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Mountains make up most of our sceneries. They are the source of our folklores, myths and legends. Southeast Asia has gone gaga over Mt. Everest lately, sending mountaineers to summit the Highest Peak in the World. They did it alright – but have they conquered OUR tallest peaks?
What is the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia anyway? – lots of people would know how to answer this. The Internet is full of information about it and they all recognize Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysia as the highest point in our region. Is it really?
1. Hkakabo Razi5881m, Burma
2. Puncak Jaya5030m, Indonesia
3. Trikora4751m, Indonesia
4. Mandala4701m, Indonesia
5. Mt. Kinabalu4094m, Malaysia
6. Kerintji 3809m, Indonesia
7. Rinjani3727m, Indonesia
8. Semeru3677m, Indonesia
9. Mt. Fansipan3143m, Vietnam
10. Mt. Agung3142m, Indonesia
And don't give me the crap about political, geographical, continental plates whatever...the fact that these mountains are IN Indonesian territory, it means they are officially in Southeast Asia. Anything within Indonesian territory is technically in SE Asia, ok? All mountains in the Indonesian territory are counted and so as the mountains in Burma, no matter how far they are.
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33 Comments:
oh my, i never knew that! @_o so the tallest peak is at burma... now i know! now all malaysian geography books need to change already... lol. XD
The view of Rinjani looks magnificent!
@ Conan...yeah, they need to change that. The 4th tallest is 700 meter higher than Kinabalu. LOL
@ Sanne...I like Mt. Semeru. Looks so menacing and wicked!
You blog is really a renegade. There are informations here that contradicts what we already know. Thank you for enlightening us.
Puncak Jaya, Puncak Trikora and Puncak Mandala are all located in Irian Jaya - the Indonesian part of the island of New Guinea ( the other half is Papua New Guinea ), which is in fact geographically AUSTRALASIA ( a different continent ) and NOT ASIA ! Check that out in your geography books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasia
Which means, Mount Kinabalu is the second highest in SOUTH EAST ASIA after Hkakabo Razi in Myanmar.
Which is still, literally speaking - " the highest " mountain in SEA.
Ha ha ha ha
I would appreciate it if you would have the balls to leave a name and a link.
It's you who need to study geography, baby. IS AUSTRALASIA A CONTINENT? Are you XXXXXX or just plain XXXX?
The fact that it's in the territory of Indonesia, which is obviously a Southeast Asian country...it means that whatever they have is included in SE Asia.
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Sarawak and Sabah is not originally a territory of Malaysia -- so does it mean that Mt. Kinabalu is NOT a Malaysian mountain?
Think before you speak (I mean type!)
But thank you for your comment.
Nice blog I found here! Thanks for the "enlightenment".
My dear Pisanu, geographically New Guinea is not part of Eurasia Plate, hence Asia Continent. The island, and some islands in Maluku located in Australasia Plate. This is then become a political thingy jeopardizing Indonesia's territory. So, geographically, Anonymous is correct. But your def. of SEA as collection of the 11 countries makes your list correct too!
About the Mt. Kinabalu myth you may trace back to older def. of SEA which sometimes excluding Burma (Myanmar).
Hello Panjee. We're glad you liked our blog. I think this is your first time to leave a comment -- we would just like you to know that it is appreciated and always welcome.
Cheers!
Well i agree with this blog. The chances of the highest mountain in SEA being in Burma are very high since they are in mainland Asia. The others, however just like the Philippines, are tiny archipelago (w/ the exception of Indonesia) and others are just... what do you call them? - strips? (I don't think so) But Indonesia's superiority in mountains are real proven by their earthquakes. (what does that have to do w/ it) Anyway. I wish there would be huge earthquake (gentle though not to kill) that would make the Philippine plate rise making a huge island and yay! new territories and highest mountains.
I am just glad our beloved Apo made it. ;) Hehehe, tho, Sabah is a part of the Sulu Sultanate, I personally dont recognize it as part of Malaysia. Sorry my Malaysian friends, but historically you dont have any right to Sabah.
So funny, I told my Malaysian friend about this.. She was so distraught. LOL. :)
@ Ryan...lol! Of course she would be! Malaysian school textbooks indicates Kinabalu as the tallest for decades. And suddenly they will find out that they have been lied to all along! LOL!
It doesn't bother me as much about which is the tallest, because I do in fact acknowledge that Kinabalu at 4,095m (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1012) has NEVER been the tallest in SEA.
What bothers me is how you can blindfully potray Sabah and Sarawak as "not original territories" of Malaysia, in a manner of saying "Carlifornia is not originally a territory of USA", when we factually know that there never were any "original territories of Malaysia" before Malaysia came into being. What you might be reffering to is 'Malaya', which does not include Sabah & Sarawak. The article then turns in a misleading sense, turning towards the Sulu Claim as if to fully discredit any reference or recognition of any form made to Kinabalu to date.
I feel rather disappointed that an article with excellent talking points like this should be written with such acute racial overtones and bigotry. I take this article as an insult to Sabahans, particularly the way that it suggests that the Sabahans voice do not have any weight at all in the Sulu claim.
Facts will hold the test of time, and any wrong reference made about Kinabalu as the tallest has slowly been corrected.
I appreciate your input anonymous and it is very insightful.
But I think you looked at my article in the wrong angle.
I pointed out Sabah because of the fact that many commenters here (which we deleted for nasty words) are disclaiming mountains in Indonesia particularly in the Irian Jaya territory.
They say that these Indonesian mountains are NOT Southeast Asian mountains but Australasian. I have to site them an example that any mountain in Indonesian territory are part of SE Asia.
Same as with mountains in Sabah are Malaysian mountains.
I hope this clears the air.
Thank you for your insights. It is always welcome and appreciated.
Yes, I agree with you that Kinabalu is not the highest mountain in SEA. In fact, Kinabalu should be recognized as the "highest climber-friendly mountain in SEA".
That is why I put the above statement in my website here:
http://www.mount-kinabalu-borneo.com
Any more comments on this? I am open to suggestion.
Cheers!
More acurately Mount Kinabalu is the highest point of the Sunda tectonic plate located somewhat in the middle.. most of Thai, all of Cambodia, part of Vietnam and Laos, most of Philippines (about half Luzon), very little of Celebes/Sulawesi, none of New Guinea.
Christopher...do you really think real people would give a shit about tectonic bullocks?
In the REAL world...we call territories by country NOT tectonic bullshit.
indonesia is a country that spans two continents, asia and oceania.
the three mountains mentioned are in oceania, so they are the tallest mountains in oceania and indonesia but not in south-east asia.
the tallest mountain in south-east asia is Hkakabo Razi.
there are other countries which spans two continents, i.e. Turkey, which is partially in Europe and partly in Asia. Russia too has its european part and its asian part.
geography is geography. political borders are not permanent and can change from time to time and it is not scientific to claim otherwise.
eg. Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake by volume in Russia. It is also the largest freshwater lake by volume in Asia.
But it is not the largest freshwater lake by volume in Europe for the simple fact that it is not in the European part of Russia.
Anonymous, don't be such a smart pussy...read all the comments on this thread. IS THERE SUCH A CONTINENT CALLED OCEANIA?
By the sound of it...you are a BIG FAN of beauty pageants. Especially MISS WORLD. Wahahaha!
Don't educate things you yourself don't know.
Uneducated people resort to name-calling when challenged.
Anybody who went ever went to school knows there are seven continents:
1) Asia
2) Europe
3) Africa
4) North America
5) South America
6) Antarctica
7) Australia (Oceania)
New Guinea was connected to Australia before the last ice age, before water level rose and created the Torres strait that divided it from Australia.
this is my first time here..so i hope i dont spark a fight ... im sorry to say pisanu but anonymous is right...technically the right term for the australian continent is oceania...because of the small islands that are now recognized as countries and lies somewhere east of the mainland australia..i learned that from school too...so i hope its fair to say im correct...
Again...where's Brunei, we're starting to feel left out in all the action...yea..we know were a boring peaceful country...haha btw, how could've you known the tallest mountain in Brunei when even I'm not sure... I think its Bukit Teraja in Belait district at around 1000+metres...
Pisanu, thanks for setting the record straight.
The arguments on here are so silly. Since when was Indonesia (the country) part of Australia (the only country in the world that is a continent)? Myanmar not part of SE Asia now, huh? So do we tell our leaders to eject them from ASEAN?
In Indonesia we have been taught that Mt Jaya is the tallest peak in SE Asia. But now we know the truth.
Congratulations to Myanmar!
And to our brothers in Malaysia, the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia is not Kinabalu. Period. Why be defensive? You should change your Truly Asia adverts making that untrue claim.
Peace.
@ bruneian
i thought bukit pagon in temburong is taller but mate this is the top 10 tallest mountains in SEA post.. our mountains arent tall enough, get over it!! if u want something to whine about refer to the raja who lost us >90% of our country in the first place ye.
btw- its a great topic but it suddenly turned so factual.. Basically its comparing who has the biggest lump of pointy rock and people are getting so worked up about it! i get the general feeling that eastern malaysia is neglected by the mainland anyway! (just an observation yea, + most of my malaysian friends agree). how many of the malaysians damning the other big pointy rocks have even visited their own? anyway kk is such a splendorous mountain as it is and u cant take that away from it.
p.s. love the blog!
Dear friends,
If you are interested in Geography, please research more how many moutains from Burma is in between Mt.Hakaborazi (tallest in SEA) and Mt. Kinabalu (5th mentioned in this blog). According to some credible sources, there are are several mountains to which no foreigner have ever stepped on.
Enjoy with your exploration.
hiyaa all,
I accidently got to your site and wow!! what an invigorating debacle... kudos to all those who kept it real...
just to add in on why
MT.Hakaborazi was not reckoned as the tallest mountain in Asia,
well it was not documented and gazeted till Takashi Ozaki scaled it in 1996. Prior to that... the burmese region of the mountain was known to be a black area ...filled with land mines and communist skirkishes. Hence it was never properly explored. Anonymous is right.... in that region there are many other mountains yet to be gazeted.
Due to the unfortunate location of the Borazi..she was denied the title...
p/s: im a malaysian .... climbed KK twice.... loved it... but Borazi is still the tallest in SEA!!!
cheers all..
KUMA
The second highest mountain in SE Asia seems to be in Burma as well. It's called Ganglang Razi(5834m).
conan_cat said...
oh my, i never knew that! @_o so the tallest peak is at burma... now i know! now all malaysian geography books need to change already... lol. XDYes! We must CHANGE THE SYLLABUS
yeah i m very agree this ur sentence "Mt. Kinabalu as the tallest mountain in SE Asia is the product of novel and excellent marketing of tour agencies. "
in fact Kinabalu Mt is not the highest peak in Southeast Asia.
but the height of Kinabalu Mt u given is wrong. Kinabalu Mt is 4101 meter.
thanks
wow, there is really a big debate going on in here and i think its heating up. Anyways this is a very good write up on the tallest mountains in South East Asia. I'm not really good in geography and the dividing of continents and such. I'm a Sabahan myself and i dont take any prejudice to the new findings for the tallest mountain isnt our Mt. Kinabalu.
However, i have to say that what RIAIN mentioned about Sabah not being a part of Malaysia is utterly nonsense. Before you can convince others on your point, please make sure you recognize the states within Malaysia, and then go deeper into this topic. I would understand why your malaysian friend too much offense to your statement because i felt the same way when i read your statement.
Nevertheless, PISANU i must admit this is really a good write up.
@Dragonofborneo-
Why don't you look up your history books? The government of Malaysia is paying rent to the Sultan of Sulu (which is a Filipino) for Sabah and the Malaysian government KNOWS about this. Before the creation of Malaysia, the British rented Sabah from the Sulu Sultanate. Sabah was a gift by the Sultan of Brunei then when the Sulu Sultan helped him quell a rebellion in his kingdom. THIS IS A FACT that Malaysia tries to hide. Up until now, the Philippines still has a pending claim on Sabah. When the Brits left, instead of returning Sabah to its rightful owners, the Brits gave it to the newly created Federation of Malaya-which is now called Malaysia - a horrible act of which was tantamount to stealing an entire territory. You did not know that didn't you? The way Sabahans treat Filipinos in Sabah is abominable, unacceptable and inhumane.
Before making any such comments, please do read your history well, and look it up in an independent source. I do not want to discuss everything here, because this is off-topic already.
While I do not want to provoke enmity between Malaysians and Filipinos- I have many good Malaysian friends- it is best that you study or research your comments very well before making them.
Dear friends,
The debate over highest mountains in South East Asia would not end with this list. Here is a list of mountains and their approximate heights. Most of them are located near Hkakabo Razi. I'm afraid to say they would push Mt. Kinabalu to further down to the list.
• Hkakabo Razi 5881m(19296 ft)
• Ganlang-Razi 5867m (19142 ft)
• Mt. Pangram (4,655m)
• Mt. Phonyin (4,560m)
• Mt.Phone Kan Razi (3655 m)
There are still many mountainous areas in Burma where the mountain heights are never been measured.
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