Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Himalayas

Starting point is 00:00:00 Located between China and India, as well as Pakistan, Bhutan, and Nepal, is the world's highest chain of mountains, the Himalayas. The Himalayas aren't just very tall, picturesque mountains that are the home of Mount Everest. They are perhaps the most important mountain range on earth. The Himalayas serve as the source of several of the world's most important rivers. It's responsible for weather patterns throughout much of Asia, and it has served an important role throughout history in trade, religion, and geopolitics. Learn more about the Himalayas, how they were formed and the role they play in the world today on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong?

Starting point is 00:00:53 ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast. NPR. The Himalayas are located in the heart of Asia. They run along the border between China and India and extend into northern Pakistan. The mountainous nations of Nepal and Bhutan are also located within the Himalayas. The Himalayas separate the broad and high Tibetan plateau to the north and the North Indian River Plain to the south. It extends in an arc roughly from northwest

Starting point is 00:01:37 to southeast and is about 2,400 kilometers long or 1,500 miles. It is of course, famous for hosting some of the highest mountain peaks in the world, including Mount Everest. Over half of the 100 highest mountain peaks on Earth are all located in the Himalayas. When you zoom into the Himalayas, you'll see that it isn't a single mountain range. There are actually four separate parallel ranges. The Tibetan Himalayas are in the north. Next comes the Central Himalayas, which is where the highest peaks are located. South of that is the Lower Himalayan Range, and finally the Chevalik Hills.

Starting point is 00:02:12 Any discussion of the Himalayas should start with. with geology and the process by which the mountain range was created. The Himalayas, as with many geological phenomenon on the planet, have their origin in plate tectonics. About 50 million years ago, the Indian plate, which is home to most of the Indian subcontinent, began to collide with the larger Eurasian plate, and this was the result of the Indian plate slowly moving north. As the plates collided, the Indian plate began to slowly subduct under the Eurasian plate, This resulted in a massive uplift of land along the boundary, which is what we know today as the

Starting point is 00:02:50 Himalayas. Much of the rock in the Himalayas is sedimentary rock, which initially formed in the ancient Tethys Ocean. The Tethys Ocean was the ocean that sat between India and Eurasia, and eventually disappeared after the collision. The process of subduction of the Indian plate and the uplift of the land above it is an active process that's still going on today. On average, the Himalayas are getting 5 millimeters taller every year. That means over the course of an average human lifetime, the Himalayas will actually be four-tenths of a meter, or almost 16 inches taller when someone is 80 compared to when they were born. The fact that the Himalayas are so tall is evidence of the fact that they are relatively young for a mountain range. Other notable mountain ranges

Starting point is 00:03:36 around the world, such as the Rockies, the Andes, the Alps, and the Urals are many times older than the Himalayas. Because they're older, they've had more time to erode, which is why they're not as tall anymore. These enormous mountains have had huge implications for almost everything in the region. For starters, the Himalayas are responsible for the climate on each side of the range. On the north, the mountains largely block cold winds that come out of Central Asia. This results in a colder than normal climate north of the Himalayas as the cold air is trapped. Likewise, it allows for northern India to be warmer than it otherwise would be given its latitude. The Himalayas also have an enormous influence on rain and precipitation. In the summer, warm moist air from the south moves over India and hits a wall

Starting point is 00:04:23 when it reaches the mountains. The warm moist air is pushed up into the mountains where it encounters colder temperatures. The colder temperatures cause the moist air to condense and come down as rainfall. This is the cause of the monsoons, which are so important to India. The summer monsoons, which occur roughly from June to September, bring about 75% of India's annual rainfall, which is essential for the irrigation of crops such as rice and wheat, which form the backbone of the Indian agricultural system. The Himalayas make the monsoons, and the monsoons make India. Without the Himalayas, India would be a much drier and very different place. The flip side of this is that the Himalayas create a rain shadow on their northern side,

Starting point is 00:05:08 significantly reducing the amount of precipitation that reaches the Tibetan plateau. As a result, the Tibetan plateau and regions like the Takalamakan and Gobi deserts to the north of the Himalayas are much drier. The Tibetan Plateau experiences a cold desert climate due to its high elevation and the rain shadow effect. Winters are harsh with very low temperatures and limited snowfall. However, there is snowfall in the mountains. The Himalayas contain the largest mass. of ice and snow in the world between the Arctic and Antarctic circles. Every spring, much of that snow mass melts, and all of that water is the basis for several

Starting point is 00:05:49 of the world's greatest rivers. There are 19 major rivers that have their headwaters in the Himalayas. Three of the largest rivers are the Indus, the Brahmaputra, and the Ganges. These rivers create the North India River Plain, which I previously mentioned. The plain extends from Bangladesh in the east, up through northern India, and into Pakistan. This area is one of the cradles of early civilization. The Indus Valley civilization was one of the greatest Bronze Age cultures. The three rivers I've listed by name will all be subject of future episodes. But for the purpose of this episode, the key takeaway is that they all have their headwaters

Starting point is 00:06:29 in the Himalayas. There are a few odd things about these rivers. The first is that some geologists think that the river, rivers might be older than the Himalayas. The rivers probably began when the plates first came together. Then as the mountains began to form, they just kept cutting channels through them. Another interesting fact is the Himalayas do not form a continental divide because the rivers cut through the mountain range, creating gorges and canyons. As important as the Himalayas are to the geography and geology of the region, they're just as important to the society, culture, politics,

Starting point is 00:07:05 and religions of the region. India and China are two of the great ancient civilizations of the world, yet strangely, they had very little contact given their proximity to each other. The Himalayas served as a giant wall between the two civilizations that resulted in little interaction. The mountains served as a type of natural limit for each civilization's reach. The most significant contact between the two countries actually ended up taking place via the sea. There were route through the Himalayas, which were considered part of the Silk Road, but they were extremely difficult to navigate, and what could be brought through the mountain passes was very limited. The Himalayas also have a central point in many of the religions in the area.

Starting point is 00:07:49 They are considered sacred in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. The mountains are home to many important pilgrimage sites, such as the Hindu temples of Kadarnath, Badrhenath, Amarnath, and Mount Kailash, which is believed to be the abode of Lord Shiva. Tibetan Buddhism is the dominant religion on the other side of the mountains. It's predominantly found on the Tibetan plateau and in other parts of the Himalayas. There are several religious practices that they follow which are closely linked to the mountains. In addition to the many sacred mountains and lakes, many Tibetan Buddhists also practiced Jotter,

Starting point is 00:08:22 which is also known as sky burial. In this traditional funerary practice, the deceased body is left exposed on mountain tops to be consumed by vultures. And this practice reflects the type. Tibetan Buddhist belief in the impertinence of life and the cycle of rebirth. Before the development of major religions, numerous myths and legends were associated with the Himalayas. In various South Asian mythologies, the Himalayas are often depicted as the dwelling place of gods and mythical creatures. While the Himalayas have traditionally served as a barrier between India and China, it never exactly served as an official border until the 20th century. No one had ever conducted an extensive survey before that.

Starting point is 00:09:01 The first proposed borders were the 1865 Johnson line and then the 1914 McMahon line. The British created the border and it was the agreed-upon line between British India and Tibet, which at the time was not part of China. China, for its part, objected to the border. And this became an issue in the early 1950s after the Chinese Communist Revolution and the 1950 Chinese invasion of Tibet. China and a now fully independent India, objected to each other's border claims, and those objections eventually spilled over into

Starting point is 00:09:36 overt military conflict in 1967. There were additional military skirmishes between India and China over the disputed regions in 1987, 2017, and 2020. There are two major regions which are under dispute. The first is Aksai Chin, which is claimed by India but controlled by China. India claims that the area is part of their territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It's approximately 38,000 square kilometers, which is about the size of Bhutan. It's sparsely populated with fewer than 10,000 people living there. The second disputed region is Aronashal Pradesh, an Indian state located in the northeast of the country, which China claims. It is a population of 1.3 million people and an area approximately the size of the nation of Austria. The claims of both India and China

Starting point is 00:10:26 are based on the 19th century border set by the British. In addition to the major disputes between India and China, there are some smaller border disputes in the Himalayas between India and Nepal and China and Bhutan. Living in the Himalayas is extremely difficult, and it's responsible for its extremely low population density. Take, for example, the nation of Nepal. It has a population of 23 million people. Yet the vast majority of them are located in two areas.

Starting point is 00:10:54 in the south of the country near the Indian border, which is actually a thin strip of land south of the Himalayas, or within the Kathmandu Valley. Getting anywhere in the Himalayas is extremely difficult. The roads are dangerous, often with no safety features, preventing a vehicle from going off the side of the road. Getting to a neighboring village may take hours, even if you can see the village from your own.

Starting point is 00:11:19 The extreme gorges require you to travel enormous vertical distances just to travel short horizontal distances. Due to the rocky conditions in the mountain, the soil is very poor, so the crops that can be grown are very limited. The altitude in the winters also limit the seasons where things can be grown. And because you're in the mountains, terraces are required to grow most crops. A limited amount of cattle are raised in the region

Starting point is 00:11:44 because they can graze on marginal land that can grow little other than grass. The Himalayas are one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring mountain rain on Earth. However, their significance extends beyond mere physical beauty. The weather systems and rivers created by the Himalayas are critical to over a billion people. And all of that is due to the multi-millionaire process of India colliding into Eurasia. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Ben Long and Cameron Kiefer. Today's review comes from listener Eyes Open 52 on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, excited. I'm so excited to have found your podcast. Actually, my daughter told me about it, and since then I've passed it on to so many others. Thank you for updating my knowledge on some things and completely amazing me and teaching me on other things. Best podcast ever. Well, thank you, eyes open 52. Your daughter clearly has good taste, and you must have raised her right. I also appreciate you spreading the word about the podcast. As there's no algorithm like there is on YouTube, word of mouth is how podcasts have to spread.

Starting point is 00:12:56 Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Himalayas

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