Mount Tanchelungar

Mount Tanchelungar (Zhenian: 탄체룬가르 산, Toburnese: ཊནཆེལུངར), alternately referred to as ‘’’Mount Daeseong’’’ (Zhenian: 대성산) as its former official name, is the highest mountain in Zhenia as well as one of the highest mountains in the world. Rising to an elevation of 8782.8 m along the northern section of the Cheonsan Mountains, it stands out as the highest point in the entire mountain range as a whole. It lies in the corner of the border between Heuksu and Shingang provinces, with four of its five peaks forming the border and the remaining one solely located within Heuksu Province.

Widely regarded as the ancestral mountain of the Toburn people in western Zhenia, it was widely regarded as the highest mountain in the nation since early on - the myth was further confirmed with a series of trigonometrical surveys around the Cheonsan Mountains during the Empire of Zhenia. The mountain also retained importance as one of the five sacred mountains of the Empire of Zhenia, particularly regarded as the 'Mountain of the West'. Given its height and symbolic significance, it was renamed into Mount Daeseong, bearing the epoch name of Emperor Seongjo, from 1450 to 1583 AC; however, the name was reverted back to its current name in 1583 AC by the Fourth Republic's Ministry of Territories and Transport, in compliance to the Fourth Republic's propitiatory approach towards ethnic minorities in western and northern Zhenia.

Attempts to climb Mount Tanchelungar had been made for several centuries, first by Toburn and later by Wei and Imperial Zhenian explorers in the 15th century AC, with records of numerous expedition attempts up the southern and eastern slope of the mountain. Additional expedition attempts during the Republic, with a Zhenian expedition team led by Han Chanho having claimed to climb above 8,000 m (26,247 ft) for the first time in human history in 1517 AC. The first officially successful ascent and return of Mount Tanchelungar was achieved by a Zhenian mountaineering team of Um Joonseok and Kim Hyuntak on August 17, 1543 AC using the northeastern ridge route, an event that received wide media coverage and was popularized as the symbol of Zhenian pride after its defeat in the Second Great War. Numerous additional climbing attempts using four other ridge routes were reported over the course of the 16th century AC. In particular, climbing the mountain via the treacherous southern ridge route was first successfully achieved by a team of Tinifghani and Myrish mountaineers, led by Myrish mountaineer Finn Wilberg and Tinifghani mountaineer Daryan Azwer, in 1569 AC.

Etymology and naming
The name ‘Tanchelungar’ means “great white peak” in ancient Toburnese, the old language of the local Toburn people. It was coined due to the mountain being covered by snow year round, as well as the fact that it serves as a landmark for the mountainous people. While the name itself was maintained by the Toburn state until the 14th century, the Wei people east of the Cheonsan Mountains referred to them as the ‘’Tabaishan’’, which is the literal translation of ‘’Tanchelungar’’ - to the Dan people, the name was translated as ‘’Taebaeksan’’. Outside the Toburn people and their land, the mountain was known to the outside world under the Wei and Dan names in pre-modern times.

In 1444, following the first successful trigonometric measurement of the mountain’s elevation at 8,758.3 meters during the Empire of Zhenia, the Imperial Ministry of the Interior renamed the mountain as Mount Daeseong, in light of the posthumous title of Emperor Seongjo. While there were continuous proposals to keep the name of the mountain as it had been, there were also concerns that the name ‘’Taebaeksan’’ overlapped with another mountain of the same name in the Bukdu Mountains - the same mountain that had been considered the birthplace of the Dan people. The name ‘Mount Daeseong’ was formally recognized by the Imperial Zhenian Geographic Administration in 1445, after which the name started to appear on all official texts to refer to the mountain.

The name “Mount Daeseong” was abolished in 1539, following Zhenia’s defeat in the Second Great War and the beginning of Allied Occupation in Zhenia. The name of the mountain was reverted back to Mount Taebaek, after it had been decided by Allied High Command that ‘remains of Imperial Zhenia and the First Republic caused the great wars’. While the name was temporarily reinstated after the Second Zhenian Civil War and during the Third Republic under Kim Shimin, he also announced the renaming of the mountain back to Mount Tanchelungar prior to his visit to Heuksu Province on May 27, 1558. Despite immense political opposition against reverting the name back to the Toburni form, it is speculated that the renaming scheme itself had been a political move in its own way, at an attempt to portray the Third Republic as more friendly to ethnic minorities throughout the nation. In June 4, 1559, the new name of the mountain received the go-ahead in the National Reconstruction Council, lasting to this day.

Before the 16th century
Due to the mountain’s historical significance and symbolism, there have been several attempts to climb the mountain for several years, with the earliest recorded attempts dating back before the Zhenian unification wars. Due to a lack of preemptive knowledge and technology, most attempts at the time had been done without the comprehensive assessment of the mountains as a whole, which resulted in high mortality rates in the expeditions that followed in the mountains.

Most climb attempts after Zhenian unification took place after the height of the mountain was assessed using the trigonometric method, which confirmed the mountain’s height to be 8,758.3 meters - a figure just 20 meters less than the actual height measured today.