The mountains of Bhutan are some of the most prominent natural geographic features of the kingdom. Located on the southern end of the
Eastern Himalaya
]
The Eastern Himalayas extend from eastern Nepal across Northeast India, Bhutan, the Tibet Autonomous Region to Yunnan in China and northern Myanmar. The climate of this region is influenced by the monsoon of South Asia from June to September. It ...
,
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
has one of the most rugged mountain terrains in the world, whose elevations range from to more than above sea level, in some cases within distances of less than of each other. Bhutan's highest peak, at above sea level, is north-central
Gangkhar Puensum
Gangkhar Puensum ( dz, གངས་དཀར་སྤུན་གསུམ་, translit=Kangkar Punsum, alternatively, Gangkar Punsum or Gankar Punzum) is the highest mountain in Bhutan and the highest unclimbed mountain in the world, with an ele ...
, close to the border with Tibet; the third highest peak,
Jomolhari
Jomolhari or Chomolhari (; ) sometimes known as "the bride of Kangchenjunga”, is a mountain in the Himalayas, straddling the border between Yadong County of Tibet, China and the Paro district of Bhutan. The north face rises over above the bar ...
, overlooking the
Chumbi Valley
The Chumbi Valley, called Dromo or Tromo in Tibetan,
is a valley in the Himalayas that projects southwards from the Tibetan plateau, intervening between Sikkim and Bhutan. It is coextensive with the administrative unit Yadong County in the T ...
in the west, is above sea level; nineteen other peaks exceed .
[ Weather is extreme in the mountains: the high peaks have perpetual snow, and the lesser mountains and hewn gorges have high winds all year round, making them barren brown wind tunnels in summer, and frozen wastelands in winter. The ]blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling b ...
s generated in the north each winter often drift southward into the central highlands
Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau.
Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to:
Places Albania
* Dukagjin Highlands
Armenia
* Armenian Highlands
Australia
*Sou ...
.
The mountains of Bhutan define its three main geographic zones: the Great Himalaya
The Great Himalayas or Greater Himalayas or Himadri is the highest mountain range of the Himalayan Range.Hussain, MajidGeography of India/ref> The world's highest peak, Mount Everest, as well as other "near−highest" peaks, such as Kangchenjunga, ...
, the Lower Himalayan Range
The Lower Himalayan Range ( ne, पर्वत शृङ्खला parbat shrinkhalā) – also called the Middle Himalayas or Lesser Himalayas or Himachal – is a major east–west mountain range with elevations 3,700 to 4,500 m (12,000 to ...
(or Inner Himalaya), and the Sub-Himalayan Range
The Sub-Himalayan Range (also known as the Cis-Himalaya) is the southernmost mountains in the Himalayan range, located on the Indian subcontinent. Their average height varies between 600 and 1200 meters, and are not so high in altitude as compa ...
.[ The snowcapped Great Himalaya in the north ranges from about to peaks of over above sea level, extending along the Bhutan-Tibet border. The northern region consists of an arc of glaciated mountain peaks with an arctic climate at the highest elevations. Watered by snow-fed rivers, alpine valleys in this region provide pasturage for livestock tended by a sparse population of migratory shepherds.][ Spur-like mountain ranges of the Lower Himalaya, between and , run northwest to southeast in western Bhutan, and northeast to southwest in eastern Bhutan.][ These mountains, and especially their western valleys, make up the economic and cultural heart of the kingdom, including most of its ]dzong
Dzong architecture is used for dzongs, a distinctive type of fortified monastery ( dz, རྫོང, , ) architecture found mainly in Bhutan and Tibet. The architecture is massive in style with towering exterior walls surrounding a complex of cou ...
s. These mountainous areas are contrasted with the hilly Sub-Himalaya, with elevations of up to , and the lower Duars
The Dooars or Duars ( as, দুৱাৰ, duar, rkt, দুৱাৰ, duar, bn, দুয়ার, duyar) () are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the ...
.[ Many lower mountain ranges are composed of coarse granite sandstone, while rocks at the highest elevations consist of ]gneiss
Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...
among upheaved strata of mica and talcose slate. Many ranges are abundant in limestone.[
Bhutan's valleys are carved into the Himalaya by its ]rivers
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...
, fed by glacial melt and monsoon rains. Much of the Bhutanese population is concentrated in valleys and lowlands, separated by the rugged southward spurs of the Inner Himalaya. Despite modernization and development of transport in Bhutan Transport in Bhutan uses about of roads and four airports, three of which are operational and interconnected. Paro Airport is the only airport which accommodates international flights. As part of Bhutan's infrastructure modernization programs, it ...
, including a national highway system, travel from one valley to the next remains difficult. Western valleys are bound to the east by the Black Mountains in central Bhutan, which form a watershed between two major river systems, the punatsangchhu (Sankosh River
Sankosh (also Mo Chu, and Svarnakosha) is a river that rises in northern Bhutan and empties into the Brahmaputra in the state of Assam in India. In Bhutan, it is known as the Puna Tsang Chu below the confluences of several tributaries near the ...
) and the Drangme Chhu. Central valleys are separated from the east by the Donga Range. The more isolated mountain valleys protect several tiny, distinct cultural and linguistic groups
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...
.
Bhutan controls several strategic Himalayan mountain passes including routes between Tibet and Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
. These routes, being the only way into the kingdom, along with centuries-old policies of isolationism
Isolationism is a political philosophy advocating a national foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality and opposes entang ...
, have gained Bhutan the nickname "Mountain Fortress of the Gods." Although the British established a protectorate over Bhutan and occupied its lowlands, the mountainous interior has never been successfully invaded.
Great Himalaya
The mountains of Great Himalaya
The Great Himalayas or Greater Himalayas or Himadri is the highest mountain range of the Himalayan Range.Hussain, MajidGeography of India/ref> The world's highest peak, Mount Everest, as well as other "near−highest" peaks, such as Kangchenjunga, ...
dominate the north of Bhutan, where peaks can easily reach . The tallest peaks range, from west to east, along northern Haa, Paro and Thimphu District
Thimphu District (Dzongkha: ཐིམ་ཕུ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Thim-phu rdzong-khag'') is a dzongkhag (district) of Bhutan. Thimphu is also the capital of Bhutan and the largest city in the whole kingdom.
Languages
The ...
s; the bulk of Gasa District
Gasa District or Gasa Dzongkhag ( Dzongkha: མགར་ས་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Mgar-sa rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. The capital of Gasa District is Gasa Dzong near Gasa. It is loc ...
; northernmost Wangdue Phodrang District
Wangdue Phodrang District ( Dzongkha: དབང་འདུས་ཕོ་བྲང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Dbang-'dus Pho-brang rdzong-khag''; previously spelled "Wangdi Phodrang") is a dzongkhag (district) of central Bhutan. This ...
; and northern Bumthang and Lhuentse Districts. The highest point in Bhutan is Gangkhar Puensum
Gangkhar Puensum ( dz, གངས་དཀར་སྤུན་གསུམ་, translit=Kangkar Punsum, alternatively, Gangkar Punsum or Gankar Punzum) is the highest mountain in Bhutan and the highest unclimbed mountain in the world, with an ele ...
, which has the distinction of being the highest unclimbed mountain
An unclimbed mountain is a mountain peak that has yet to be climbed to the top. Determining which unclimbed peak is highest is often a matter of controversy. In some parts of the world, surveying and mapping are still unreliable. There are no co ...
in the world, at . Some massive summits such as Gangkhar Puensum, Kula Kangri
Kula Kangri is claimed by many authorities to be the highest mountain in Bhutan but this is disputed by others, who claim that Kula Kangri is wholly in Tibet. The first ascent was by a combined Japanese and Chinese team in 1986. The mountain is p ...
, and Tongshanjiabu
Tongshanjiabu is a mountain in the Himalayas. At tall, Tongshanjiabu is the 103rd tallest mountain in the world. It sits in the disputed border territory between Bhutan and China. Tongshanjiabu has never been officially climbed.
The name "Ton ...
lie in territory disputed among Bhutan and China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. According to Bhutanese claims, these giants should be part of Gasa District
Gasa District or Gasa Dzongkhag ( Dzongkha: མགར་ས་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Mgar-sa rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. The capital of Gasa District is Gasa Dzong near Gasa. It is loc ...
. Other peaks of the Great Himalaya, such as Mount Jitchu Drake
Jichu Drake (pronounced drah kay) is a mountain in Bhutan among the Himalayas, and a companion peak to Mount Jomolhari. Its height is given variously as 6714m, 6789m, 6797m, 6970m or 6989m by various sources. Jitchu Drake has a double summit, w ...
, lie squarely within Gasa.
The Great Himalaya contains most of the glaciers of Bhutan The glaciers of Bhutan, which covers about 3 percent of the total surface area, are responsible for feeding all rivers of Bhutan except the Amochu and Nyere Amachu.
Not much historical information is available on these glacial systems; the first mo ...
. This region contains the vast majority of Bhutan's 677 glaciers and 2,674 glacial lake
A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier.
Formation
Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...
s and subsidiary lakes, out of which 25 pose a risk of GLOFs. The vast number of glaciers in Bhutan are classed as "valley" and "mountain glaciers," although significant numbers of "ice apron," and "niche glacier" types also exist. Some glacial lakes, such as Thorthormi Lake in Lunana Gewog
Lunana Gewog is a gewog (village block) of Gasa District, Bhutan. The village Lunana is the administrative center of Lunana Gewog.
The gewog lies almost entirely within protected areas, mostly in Jigme Dorji National Park, though eastern sectio ...
, are not single bodies of water but collections supraglacial ponds.
Lower Himalayan Range
The Lower Himalayan Range
The Lower Himalayan Range ( ne, पर्वत शृङ्खला parbat shrinkhalā) – also called the Middle Himalayas or Lesser Himalayas or Himachal – is a major east–west mountain range with elevations 3,700 to 4,500 m (12,000 to ...
s, also called the Inner Himalaya, are southward spurs of the Great Himalaya
The Great Himalayas or Greater Himalayas or Himadri is the highest mountain range of the Himalayan Range.Hussain, MajidGeography of India/ref> The world's highest peak, Mount Everest, as well as other "near−highest" peaks, such as Kangchenjunga, ...
, dominating the midsection of Bhutan. The Dongkya Range forms the trijunction of the Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
-Sikkim
Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...
-Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
border, separating Sikkim from the Chumbi Valley
The Chumbi Valley, called Dromo or Tromo in Tibetan,
is a valley in the Himalayas that projects southwards from the Tibetan plateau, intervening between Sikkim and Bhutan. It is coextensive with the administrative unit Yadong County in the T ...
[ The Black Mountains in central Bhutan form a watershed between two major river systems, the Mo Chhu and the Drangme Chhu. Peaks in the Black Mountains range between and above sea level. Eastern Bhutan is divided by another southward spur, the Donga Range,][ whose valleys tend to be steeper ravines.][
Unlike the Great Himalaya, there are no ]glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
s in the Inner Himalayan ranges, though some summits and upper slopes are covered with moraine
A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...
s.[
]
Black Mountains
The Black Mountains, lie to the east of the Sankosh River
Sankosh (also Mo Chu, and Svarnakosha) is a river that rises in northern Bhutan and empties into the Brahmaputra in the state of Assam in India. In Bhutan, it is known as the Puna Tsang Chu below the confluences of several tributaries near the ...
. Midway between Punakha
Punakha ( dz, སྤུ་ན་ཁ་) is the administrative centre of Punakha dzongkhag, one of the 20 districts of Bhutan. Punakha was the capital of Bhutan and the seat of government until 1955, when the capital was moved to Thimphu. It is abo ...
and Trongsa
Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of Trongsa District in central Bhutan. The name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-gran ...
, they separate western Bhutan from the ethnolinguistically diverse central regions and the densely populated eastern regions.[ The Black Mountains themselves spur ramifications to the southwest and southeast, reaching into ]Trongsa District
Trongsa District (Dzongkha: ཀྲོང་གསར་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie transliteration: ''Krong-gsar rdzong-khag'') is one of the districts of Bhutan. It is the most central district of Bhutan and the geographic centre of Bhutan is ...
.[ Pele La pass at is historically and modernly the most important pass in the Black Mountains.][
The isolation of populations in the Black Mountain area has produced great linguistic and ethnic diversity:][ ][ it is the home of the Lakha, ]Nyenkha
Nyenkha ( Dzongkha: འནྱེན་ཁ་; Wylie: Nyen-kha''; also called "'Nyenkha", "Henkha", "Lap", "Nga Ked", and "Mangsdekha") is an East Bodish language spoken by about 10,000 people in the eastern, northern, and western areas of the ...
, and 'Olekha languages, representing distantly related Tibetan
Tibetan may mean:
* of, from, or related to Tibet
* Tibetan people, an ethnic group
* Tibetan language:
** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
and East Bodish
The East Bodish languages are a small group of non-Tibetic Bodish languages spoken in eastern Bhutan and adjacent areas of Tibet and India. They include:
* Dakpa (Tawang Monpa)
* Dzala
* Nyen, including Mangde and Phobjib
* Chali
* Bumthang
...
language groups.
Between Trongsa
Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of Trongsa District in central Bhutan. The name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-gran ...
and Jakar
Jakar (Dzongkha: བྱ་ཀར་; Wylie: ''Bya-kar'') is a town in the central-eastern region of Bhutan. It is the district capital (dzongkhag thromde) of Bumthang District and the location of Jakar Dzong, the regional dzong fortress. The na ...
runs another mountain range, crossed by Yuto La pass (also called Yotong La). Continuing east, there is another ridge between Jakar
Jakar (Dzongkha: བྱ་ཀར་; Wylie: ''Bya-kar'') is a town in the central-eastern region of Bhutan. It is the district capital (dzongkhag thromde) of Bumthang District and the location of Jakar Dzong, the regional dzong fortress. The na ...
and the Kuri Chhu
The Kuri Chhu, also known as the Lhozhag Xung Qu (tib. lho brag gzhung chu) or Norbu Lag Qu (tib. nor bu lag chu), is a major river of eastern Bhutan, that has formed a scenic valley with high peaks and steep hills. Kuri Chhu is a tributary of th ...
valley, crossed by Ura La pass in Ura Gewog
Ura Gewog ( dz, ཨུ་ར་རྒེད་འོག) is a gewog (village block) of Bumthang District, Bhutan. Ura Gewog consists of ten major villages- Tangsibi, Shingnyeer, Shingkhar, Pangkhar, Somthrang, Beteng, Trabi, Tarshong, Toepa and C ...
at .[ ][
]
Donga Range
The steep Donga Range separates Bumthang and Lhuentse Districts and forms the watershed between the Raidāk and Manas River systems. Northeastern portions of the Donga are known as Kurtoe (modern Kurtoe Gewog, historical Kurtoed Province
Kurtoed Province (Dzongkha: ཀུར་སྟོད་; Wylie: ''kur-stod''; "Upper Kur") was one of the nine historical Provinces of Bhutan.
Kurtoed Province occupied lands in northeastern Bhutan. It was administered together with Kurmaed Pr ...
). Thrumshing La
Thrumshing La, also called Thrumshingla Pass and Donga Pass, ( Dzongkha: ཁྲུམས་ཤིང་ལ་; Wylie: ''khrums-shing la''; "Thrumshing Pass"), is the second-highest mountain pass in Bhutan, connecting its central and eastern regio ...
pass, also called Donga Pass, provides the only road access across the Donga Range at .[ The steep Rodang La further north provides non-motor communication, and several southerly passes including Thebong La are used by herders.][ ][ At , a major peak stands over Thrumshing La.][
To the east runs another lesser spur of mountains separating Lhuentse and Trashiyangse Valleys.][
]
Tawang Range
To the east of the Manas River system, the Tawang Range (also called Kollong)[ forms the eastern boundary of Bhutan.][ The Tawang Range originates in ]Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
, to the northeast of Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
.
List of mountains
See also
*Geography of Bhutan
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a sovereign nation, located towards the eastern extreme of the Himalayas mountain range. It is fairly evenly sandwiched between the sovereign territory of two nations: first, the People's Republic of China on the north ...
*Valleys of Bhutan
The valleys of Bhutan are carved into the Himalaya by Bhutan's rivers, fed by glacial melt and monsoon rains. As Bhutan is landlocked in the mountainous eastern Himalaya, much of its population is concentrated in valleys and lowlands, separated ...
References
{{Asia in topic, List of mountains in
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...