Key Terms & Concepts — UPSC Mains
Sagarmatha
"Nepali name for the world's highest peak (8,848.86 m) — straddles the Nepal-China border; first summited May 29, 1953 by Hillary and Tenzing Norgay."
Sagarmatha ('Forehead of the Sky' in Nepali; 'Chomolungma' or 'Goddess Mother of the World' in Tibetan; 'Mount Everest' in English) is the highest peak on Earth, with a jointly-revised official height of 8,848.86 m (29,031.69 ft), agreed by Nepal and China on December 8, 2020. The mountain straddles the international border between Nepal (south side) and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China (north side), within the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Greater Himalayas. It was first measured at ~29,002 ft in 1856 during the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India under Andrew Waugh, then-Surveyor General of India. The peak — previously catalogued as Peak XV — was renamed 'Mount Everest' in 1865 in honour of Sir George Everest, Waugh's predecessor as Surveyor General (1830-1843). The mountain is a product of the ongoing collision of the Indian Plate (under-thrusting) with the Eurasian Plate, with continued uplift of ~4 mm/year. The first successful summit occurred on May 29, 1953 at 11:30 AM IST by Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (Indian-born Sherpa, Indian citizen), as part of the British Mount Everest Expedition led by Col. John Hunt, via the South Col on the Nepal side. May 29 is informally observed in Nepal as 'Everest Day'.
GS1 (geography, history of surveying, Indian Plate-Eurasian Plate collision) + GS3 (environment, Himalayan cryosphere). Prelims: official height, year of revision, first summiteers, naming year. Mains: HKH cryosphere, climate change impact on Himalayan glaciers.
- 1 Official height: 8,848.86 m (29,031.69 ft)
- 2 Joint Nepal-China revision: December 8, 2020
- 3 Names: Sagarmatha (Nepali); Chomolungma (Tibetan); Mount Everest (English)
- 4 Range: Mahalangur Himal, Greater Himalayas
- 5 Plates: Indian + Eurasian (uplift ~4 mm/year)
- 6 First measured: 1856, Great Trigonometrical Survey, Andrew Waugh
- 7 Named after: Sir George Everest (1865), Surveyor General 1830-43
- 8 First summit: May 29, 1953, 11:30 AM IST
- 9 Climbers: Edmund Hillary (NZ) + Tenzing Norgay (Indian citizen)
- 10 Expedition leader: Col. John Hunt (British)
- 11 Route: South Col, Nepal side
- 12 Sagarmatha National Park: UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979
- 13 First Indian summiteer: Avtar Singh Cheema, May 20, 1965
- 14 First Indian woman summiteer: Bachendri Pal, May 23, 1984
May 29, 2026 marked the 73rd anniversary of the first successful summit of Sagarmatha by Hillary and Tenzing Norgay — coinciding with the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, both rooted in May 29 dates.
