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Most of us believe that Mount Kinabalu is the tallest mountain in South East Asia. Since young, from our education, brochures, news, etc, we were told that. Initially stated as 4101m high, a survey in 1997 using satellite technology indicated that is actually 4095m high.

I remember some years back, my father told me that there is actually a mountain in Irian Jaya (the Indonesian side of the island of New Guinea) that is actually taller than Mount Kinabalu. The reasoning that it is not the tallest in South East Asia is because the island of New Guinea belongs to the Australasia continent, and hence not considered to be the tallest in in South East Asia.

I stumbled upon articles in Wikipedia stating the tallest mountains in South East Asia countries. Surprise, the tallest mountain in South East Asian countries is Hkakabo Razi in Myanmar at 5881m tall!

Here is the undisputed list of the tallest mountains in South East Asian countries

1. Hkakabo Razi, Myanmar, 5881m

2. Puncak Jaya, Western New Guinea, Indonesia, 4884m

3. Puncak Trikora (formerly Mt Wilhelmina), Western New Guinea, Indonesia, 4750m

4. Puncak Mandala, Western New Guinea, Indonesia, 4640m

5. Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 4095m

Now the question lies on how do we define “South East Asia”. Does South East Asia (SEA) mean all the countries that fall into SEA i.e. Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar? Or SEA is defined on the continental plate it is on?

The argument is that Western New Guinea (also known as West Papua or Irian Jaya) is located on New Guinea island, which is actually connected to the Oceania (Australasia) continent. Hence, it is technically not SEA.

As for Hkakabo Razi in Myanmar, some argue that it is located on the Himalayas, which could be classified as located in South Asia.

One argument on classification is mentioned in the comments section at Bisean. Lake Baikal is the largest lake in Asia, but it is located in Siberia, Russia. Russia as we all know, is an European country. But the lake is located on the Asian side of Russia. Even Wikipedia mentioned that Lake Baikal is located in Asia.

So, in conclusion, Mount Kinabalu could still be the tallest mountain in South East Asia, depending on how you classify South East Asia. But among the South East Asian countries, it is only the 5th tallest.

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