One of the most interesting thing about the Himalayas is how the Rivers interact with the Range and how the River Basins work. Since none of us is taught this in school in the Geography class the way one can study this fascinating aspect is to study Maps. Not the Maps of the new but the old Maps made by the Geological Surveys and the Royal Geographic Society Maps. The kind of detailing in these Maps is amazing when we keep in mind the fact that it was all done by boots on the Ground. No Aerial or Satellite Cartography.
The Last Anglo Abor War 1911
The Anglo Abor War was a series of events which took place in 1911 between the British and the Abor Tribesmen in what is today Arunachal Pradesh. The British were keen to explore and Map out the almost impenetrable Jungles that the Siang River cut through in the Eastern Himalayas. And of course this put them on a collision course with the local Tribal communities who saw them as invaders and outsiders.
The Making of the Brahmaputra
The Brahmaputra is one of the great Rivers of the World and its named after the Hindu God Brahma. The Son of Brahma actually. The River originates close to the Mansrover Lake and makes it’s journey across the Tibetan Plateau and then it turns around the Himalayas and finally arrives on the plains of Assam. Its course from the Tibetan Plateau to the plains of Assam was for years an endearing mystery.
Kintup and the Everest of Rivers
The unsung Story of one of the Indian Explorers and Surveyors, popularly called as the Pandits, who went onto Chart the course of the Zarlung Tsangbo as it Journeys through the Tibetan highlands and enters Assam through one of the most unexplored Regions of the Himalayas.