Kat-i-Vau

Kat-i-Vau is the highest mountain in the Civilised World, a peak in the Dun Trisan mountains 8100 metres above sea level.

The mountain is greatly revered by the people of Li-Vam-Aur and Taur-Dji-Oum as the connection between earth and the heavens, the means by which spirits of the dead ascend to the sky.

Though Kat-i-Vau is the highest, nearby are two peaks called Kat-i-Nieng and Kat-i-Neung, more slender peaks but almost as high.

In folkloreplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigFolklore

Folklore

This is in a series of articles about oral traditions, tales, folk practices, and folklore.

topics cult1 the region around Kat-i-Vau is called “the lands of the deathless” for two reasons. Firstly, bodies that die in the vicinity are at such a high altitude that they do not rot, and naturally mummify. Second is the belief that air actually causes death in the long term, and that every breath shortens life. As the air is so thin on Kat-i-Vau, monks travel to the highest sanctuary on the mountain and meditate, their breaths so thin and slow that they live for ever in bliss.