Himalayas (28N, 86E Nepal)

This photograph of the Himalayas shows the border region between the Tibetan Administrative Division of China and the Kingdom of Nepal, one of the highest places in the world. The Himalayan ranges include all of the twenty-six highest peaks on Earth – making it truly the “Rooftop of the World”. The white areas in the picture are glaciers that cap the mountain peaks year-round. Mountain peaks are most easily distinguished by the shadows they cast. One of the mountains shown here is Xixibangma Feng (located near the top-center of the photograph). At over 7900 m (26000 ft) in height, it is one of the highest mountains in the world, and the eighth highest peak in the Himalayan ranges. It was first climbed in 1964, eleven years after Mount Everest was first scaled.

The lighter-colored brown region seen here is the Tibetan Plateau. This windy, semi-arid plain is surrounded almost entirely by the Himalayan mountain ranges, and is fairly high itself, having an average elevation of nearly 4900 m (16000 ft). It is also the source of many of the major rivers of both Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Tibet was an independent nation until it as invaded and occupied by the Chinese in 1950. Lamaism, the form of Buddhism that was practiced in Tibet, was prohibited. This was a great blow to the Tibetan people, because their religion was so central to their traditional culture. Tibet has recently been granted some autonomy (self-rule), but tensions and occasional hostilities still occur there.

The darker areas to the right (roughly southwest) of the mountains are the lower valleys of Nepal. Like Tibet, Nepal is mostly a rural country, with a large part of the population being nomadic or semi-nomadic. As such, it has very little industry, and agriculture is a dominant part of the economy. It benefits from being on the windward side of the Himalayas and receiving adequate rainfall, in contrast to Tibet, which is said to be in the “rain shadow” of the great mountain range.