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The Yarlung Tsangpo, also called Yarlung Zangbo () is the upper stream of the
Brahmaputra River The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. ...
located in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is the longest river of Tibet and the fifth longest in China. The upper section is also called Dangque Zangbu meaning "Horse River." Originating at
Angsi Glacier __NOTOC__ The Angsi Glacier or Nangser Glacier () is a glacier located on the northern side of the Himalayas in the Purang County in China's Tibet Autonomous Region. It is immediately to the east of the Indus-Tsangpo water divide at the eastern ...
in western Tibet, southeast of Mount Kailash and
Lake Manasarovar Lake Manasarovar (Sanskrit: मानसरोवर), also called Mapam Yutso (;) locally, is a high altitude freshwater lake fed by the Kailash Glaciers near Mount Kailash in Burang County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. ...
, it later forms the South Tibet Valley and
Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, also known as the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, the Tsangpo Canyon, the Brahmaputra Canyon or the Tsangpo Gorge ('), is a canyon along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is the deepe ...
before passing into the state 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 ...
, India. Downstream from Arunachal Pradesh the river becomes far wider and is called the Siang. After reaching
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 t ...
, the river is known as
Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. It ...
. From Assam, the river enters
Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
at Ramnabazar. From there until about 200 years ago it used to flow eastward and joined the
Meghna River The Meghna River ( bn, মেঘনা নদী) is one of the major rivers in Bangladesh, one of the three that form the Ganges Delta, the largest delta on earth, which fans out to the Bay of Bengal. A part of the Surma-Meghna River System, ...
near
Bhairab Upazila Bhairab ( bn, ভৈরব) is a upazila of Kishoreganj District in the Division of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Joanshahi was another name of Bhairab. The city centre of this upazila is Bhairab Bazaar. About 118,992 people live in Bhairab municipality whi ...
. This old channel has been gradually dying. At present the main channel of the river is called Jamuna River, which flows southward to meet the Ganges, which in Bangladesh is called the
Padma The Padma ( bn, পদ্মা ''Pôdma'') is a major river in Bangladesh. It is the main distributary of the Ganges, flowing generally southeast for to its confluence with the Meghna River near the Bay of Bengal. The city of Rajshahi is si ...
. When leaving the Tibetan Plateau, the river forms the world's largest and deepest canyon,
Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, also known as the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, the Tsangpo Canyon, the Brahmaputra Canyon or the Tsangpo Gorge ('), is a canyon along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is the deepe ...
.


Description

The Yarlung Tsangpo River is the highest major river in the world. Its longest tributary is the Nyang River. Major
tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
of Yarlung Tsangpo include Nyangchu River, Lhasa River, Nyang River, and
Parlung Tsangpo Parlung Tsangpo or Parlung Zangbo (; ), also known as Palongzangbu River, is a river in Nyingchi, Tibet, China. It is the largest tributary on the left side of Yarlung Tsangpo The Yarlung Tsangpo, also called Yarlung Zangbo () is the upper str ...
. In Tibet the river flows through the South Tibet Valley, which is approximately long and wide. The valley descends from above sea level to . As it descends, the surrounding vegetation changes from cold desert to arid steppe to deciduous scrub vegetation. It ultimately changes into a conifer and
rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nat ...
forest. The tree line is approximately . Sedimentary sandstone rocks found near the Tibetan capital of Lhasa contain grains of
magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...
minerals that record the Earth's alternating magnetic field current. The basin of the Yarlung River, bounded by the Himalayas in the south and Kang Rinpoche and Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains in the north, has less severe climate than the more northern (and higher-altitude) parts of Tibet, and is home to most of the population of the
Tibetan Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of Ü ...
. The
Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, also known as the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, the Tsangpo Canyon, the Brahmaputra Canyon or the Tsangpo Gorge ('), is a canyon along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is the deepe ...
, formed by a horse-shoe bend in the river where it leaves the Tibetan Plateau and flows around Namcha Barwa, is the deepest, and possibly longest canyon in the world. The Yarlung Tsangpo River has three major waterfalls in its entire course. The largest waterfall of the river, the "Hidden Falls", was not publicized in the West until 1998, when its sighting by Westerners was briefly hailed as a "discovery." They were even portrayed as the discovery of the great falls which had been the topic of stories told to early Westerners by Tibetan hunters and
Buddhist monks A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics (" nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist ...
, but which had never been found by Western explorers at the time. The Chinese authorities protested, however, saying that Chinese geographers, who had explored the gorge since 1973, had already taken pictures of the falls in 1987 from a helicopter.Peter Heller (July 2002). Liquid Thunder. ''Outside Online''.
(retrieved on 14 September 2008)
Antonio Perezgrueso (undated). The Echo of Liquid Thunder.
(span. original
Los ecos del trueno líquido
''Explorations and Expeditions'' on the English pages of the '' Sociedad Geográfica Española'' (retrieved on 14 September 2008)


Kayak exploration

Since the 1990s the Yarlung Tsangpo River has been the destination of a number of teams that engage in exploration and whitewater kayaking. The river has been called the "Everest of Rivers" because of the extreme conditions of the river. The first attempt to run was made in 1993 by a Japanese group who lost one member on the river. In October 1998, a kayaking expedition sponsored by the National Geographic Society attempted to navigate the
Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, also known as the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, the Tsangpo Canyon, the Brahmaputra Canyon or the Tsangpo Gorge ('), is a canyon along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is the deepe ...
. Troubled by unanticipated high water levels, the expedition ended in tragedy with the death of expert kayaker
Doug Gordon Douglas Cameron Gordon, commonly known as Doug Gordon, (1956 – October 16, 1998) was an American whitewater kayaker, who was a member of the U.S. Slalom Team from 1981 to 1987, and a chemist. Gordon died in Eastern Tibet when he and three othe ...
. In January–February, 2002, an international group consisting of Scott Lindgren, Steve Fisher, Mike Abbott, Allan Ellard, Dustin Knapp, and Johnnie and Willie Kern, completed the first descent of the upper Tsangpo gorge section.


Dams and hydropower projects

In November 2020, the chairman of
PowerChina Power Construction Corporation of China, branded as PowerChina, is a wholly State-owned company administered by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and part of the heavy and civil engineering construction industry. Pow ...
announced the construction of a "super" dam on the Yarlung Zangbo which would be the world's largest hydroelectric project.


References


External links


River from Heaven
Documentary film by CNTV (Chinese) {{Tibet topics Rivers of Tibet Brahmaputra River Braided rivers in China