Kangchenjunga, the third-highest mountain in the world at 28,169 feet (8,586 meters), straddles the border between eastern Nepal and northeastern India. The area is a Buddhist stronghold.
“Long before anyone attempted to reach its summit, it was an object of awe and veneration for the indigenous population,” Mick Conefrey wrote in The Last Great Mountain: The First Ascent of Kangchenjunga. “They revered it as their holiest mountain, whose summit was home to one of their most important deities.”
Legendary British mountaineer Doug Scott wrote in Kangchenjunga: The Himalayan Giant that the mountain “has huge religious significance, second only to the most holy mountain, Kailash.”
Scott quotes the Russian artist and mystic Nicholas Roerich as saying, “All eyes are attracted to the majestic white summits beyond the clouds, as if rising over an inferior world.”
Kangchenjunga means “Five treasures of the great (or high) snow,” named for the mountain’s five summits (there are actually 16 peaks over 23,000 feet/7,000 meters on the massif).
But Roerich said, “And why is this gorgeous mountain so called? It is because it contains a store of the five more precious things in the world. … It is said that there will come a time when famine will overtake the whole world. At that time a Man will appear who will unlock the giant gate of these vast treasuries and will nourish all mankind. And it is of course understood that this Man will nourish humanity not with material food, but with spiritual food.”
We know this “Man” to be the Son of Man, the name Jesus called Himself when He walked in this world. We also call Jesus the Bread of Life. He is the one who takes away our spiritual hunger.
Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).
But the many Buddhists in the Kangchenjunga area do not know about Jesus. “I have never heard of any Christian ministry being done there,” said Megh Gurung, Climbing For Christ’s Kingdom worker in Nepal.
“I think there are many Sherpas and other tribe people (such as Limbu and Lepcha peoples) living there. We can open the door, open the heart for them by the Holy Spirit.”
PROVERBS 16:9 MOMENTS: Climbing For Christ is planning to GO into the Kangchenjunga area on Mission: Nepal 2022. It is scheduled in late May-early June and, Lord willing, this will be our 19th expedition to Nepal since first GO-ing there in 2008. A strenuous nine- or 10-day trek into a new, remote area is scheduled. Climbing For Christ has trekked throughout the north-central, Mid-West, and northwest corner of Nepal, covering hundreds of miles. God is sending us to the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area. Members of C4C are welcome to apply for this – or any other – trip. A youth group from a Colorado church that support C4C also will be serving at ministry partner SARA’s (Savior Alone Redeems Asians) Children’s Home. 