Yarlung Zangbo River

The Yarlung Zangbo River (zh-cp|c=雅鲁藏布江|p=Yǎlǔ Zàngbù Jiāng) or Yarlung Tsangpo (bo|t=ཡར་ཀླུངས་གཙང་པོ་|w=yar kLungs gTsang po) originates upstream from the South Tibet Valley and Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, in Tibet, China. It then passes through the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India, where it is known as the Dihang. Downstream from Arunachal Pradesh the river becomes wider and at this point is called the Brahmaputra River. It eventually disgorges into the Bay of Bengal. Since the river crosses international boundaries, it has at least three different names in different languages.cite web|url=http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/HPDOCS/misr/misr_html/yarlang_tsangpo.html|title=Yarlung Zangbo River in China|publisher=Atmospheric Data Science Center|accessdate=2007-06-27]

Description

The Yarlung Zangbo River is the highest major river in the world. Its longest tributary is the Nyang River. In Tibet the river flows through the South Tibet Valley, which is approximately 1200 kilometres long and 300 kilometres wide. The valley descends from 4500 metres above sea level to 3000 metres. [citebook|title=Tibetan Geography|pages=30-31|authors=Yang Qinye and Zheng Du|publisher=China Intercontinental Press|id=ISBN 7508506650|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4q_XoMACOxkC&pg=PA30&ots=SPF7WPsv8p&dq=%22South+Tibet+Valley%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&sig=cQUrmaN5XEoHuoEIcfs8aJpkKEY] [Zheng Du, Zhang Qingsong, Wu Shaohong: "Mountain Geoecology and Sustainable Development of the Tibetan Plateau" (Kluwer 2000), ISBN 0-7923-6688-3, p. 312;] As it descends, the surrounding vegetation changes from cold desert to arid steppe to deciduous scrub vegetation. It ultimately transitions into a conifer and rhododendron forest. The tree line is approximately 3,200 metres. [cite web
url=http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa1022_full.html
title=Yarlung Zangbo arid steppe (PA1022)
publisher=worldwildlife.org
accessdate=2007-06-29] Sedimentary sandstone rocks found near the Tibetan capital of Lhasa contain grains of magnetic minerals that record the Earth's alternating magnetic field current. The Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, formed by a horse-shoe bend in the river where it flows around Namcha Barwa, is the deepest, and possibly longest canyon in the world. [cite web
url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/MATERIAL/185555.htm
title=The World's Biggest Canyon
publisher=www.china.org
accessdate=2007-06-29] The river has been a challenge to whitewater kayakers because of the extreme conditions of the river. [ [http://outside.away.com/outside/system/pressroom/tsangpo_press_release.html Press release of successful kayak run] ]

The Yarlung Zangbo River has three major waterfalls. [cite web
url=http://www.world-waterfalls.com/waterfall.php?num=869
title=Hidden Falls
publisher=WWD - Waterfall Database
accessdate=2007-06-30] 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." [cite web
url=http://www.tew.org/archived/waterfalls.html
title=Fabled Tibetan Waterfalls Finally Discovered
accessdate=2007-07-07] 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, but which had never been found by Western explorers at the time. [ [http://www.tew.org/archived/waterfalls.html Compiled by Nima Dorjee (7 January, 1999). Fabled Tibetan Waterfalls Finally Discovered. "World Tibet Network News. Published by The Canada Tibet Committee. Issue ID: 99/01/07"] (retrieved on 14 September, 2008)] Chinese authorities protested, however, saying that Chinese geographers, who had explored the gorge since 1973, had already taken pictures from the falls in 1987 from a helicopter. [http://outside.away.com/tsangpo/liquid_thunder_2.html Peter Heller (July 2002). Liquid Thunder. "Outside Online".] (retrieved on 14 September, 2008) [http://ingles.sge.org/sge07/07/antonio_perez.asp Antonio Perezgrueso (undated). The Echo of Liquid Thunder.] (span. original: [http://www.sge.org/sge07/07/antonio_perez.asp Los ecos del trueno líquido] ) "Explorations and Expeditions" on the English pages of the "Sociedad Geográfica Española" (retrieved on 14 September, 2008) [http://www.louisville.edu/~pmboyl02/hiddenfalls.html "Who found it first?"] no longer existing website, quoted without further information on [http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/02files/Shangri_La.html "The Ancients. Shangri-La Found"] as: "Little attention was paid to the Chinese team that had been striking for the falls during that fateful trekking season. They claimed to have reached the falls before Baker but were ignored for the most part by everybody except their government who decided to close the gorge to westerners." (retrieved on 14 September, 2008)]

Kayak exploration

Since the 1990s the Yarlung Zangbo 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. [ [http://outside.away.com/outside/system/pressroom/tsangpo_press_release.html Press release of successful kayak run] ] 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 Zangbo Gorge. Troubled by unanticipated high water levels, the expedition ended in tragedy when expert kayaker Doug Gordon lost his life. [ [http://www.shangri-la-river-expeditions.com/1stdes/yarlung/yarlung1998c.html Doug Gordon] ]

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 Zangbo gorge section. [ [http://outside.away.com/tsangpo/liquid_thunder_1.html Story by Outside] ]

Shangri La River Expeditions has a fairly complete description of the history of first descents of the Yarlong Tsangpo and its major tribuaries. [ [http://www.shangri-la-river-expeditions.com/1stdes/yarlung/tsangposummary.html First descents of the Yarlung Tsangpo] ]

ee also

* Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon
* Tibetan Plateau

Notes