School taught us Mt. Kinabalu is the tallest mountain in SEA. That’s a lie!

Must memorize textbook, they say. Then only can pass exams, they say. Uh, sure… that is until you realize your textbook was wrong and you’ve been carrying a lie with you throughout your entire adult life!

And what might that lie be, you ask? Well, remember how we were taught in school about the magnificent Mt. Kinabalu, the supreme pinnacle, the unrivalled crown jewel, the widely acclaimed highest mountain in Southeast Asia? Yeah, as it turns out, it’s no where near the top 20, apatah lagi the highest 🤨

It’s insane if you really think about it, like the difference in height is not even a small one. But here’s where things take an even bigger turn. While the info above is absolutely real and 100% accurate, the claim that Mt. Kinabalu is the highest in SEA is not entirely baseless either!

Believe it or not, it all boils down to a single technicality– the question of what constitutes Southeast Asian territory. And by that, what we mean is…

The mountains in Myanmar are cucu-cicits to the great Himalayan giants

So here’s what the table doesn’t tell you. You see those string mountains from Myanmar taking top spot? Well, they all come from an area called Kachin, a state that’s super up north. So north, in fact, that it extends from the Himalayan range, and the mountains there are referred to as ‘Myanmar Himalaya Mountains‘.

But if so tall like that, then why people still say Mt. Kinabalu is the tallest? Ah! You see, the Himalayas are actually specific to the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan Plateau. And while they do spill over into other countries like China and Bhutan and even Myanmar, they’re officially credited to those regions only.

And as you guys know, neither India nor Tibet are part of SEA. So to put it simply, many consider these mountains part of the Himalayas and not standalone peaks in Southeast Asia.

Now we’re sure you’ve noticed that it’s not just the mountains in Myanmar that surpass Mt. Kinabalu, there are several in Indonesia as well. But Indonesia is very obviously part of SEA…. or is it really?

Indonesia ter-masuk the Oceania continent and gave their mountains an identity crisis

Just like in Myanmar, Indonesia’s tallest mountains are pretty much buddies just chilling in the same area. And that area is called Papua, which is the eastern-most part of Indonesia. If that name sounds familiar to you, you’re probably thinking of Papua New Guinea, and guess what– that’s the country bordering Papua!

Now here comes the plot twist. Geographically, the entire New Guinea island— which includes both Papua and Papua New Guinea– sits in the Oceania continent. It’s only current day politics that has divided Papua and Papua New Guinea into Southeast Asia and Oceania respectively.

So technically speaking, all the mountains from the Papua region are outside Southeast Asian territory, and that includes Puncak Jaya, Indonesia’s tallest mountain.

So where does all of this this leave us?

Mt. Kinabalu kinda perhaps might be the tallest mountain in SEA

Alright, so maybe there is some truth to what our textbooks said after all 😅, paiseh. But that’s only if we take all those nitty gritty details into consideration. Admittedly, it is pretty hilarious that this whole thing hinges on something as small as the dotted lines on a map.

But contrary to the other 2 countries where boundary lines blur and the geographical locations of the mountains are up for debate, Mt. Kinabalu is undoubtedly on Southeast Asian soil.

And if there’s one thing we can say for sure, Mt. Kinabalu will always be the tallest in our Malaysian hearts 🥰