ABSTRACT
The traditional definition of the Himalaya, sensu stricto, is that great range of mountains that separates India, along its north-central and northeastern frontier, from China (Tibet), and extends between latitudes 26°20' and 35°40' North, and between longitUdes 74°50' and 95°40' East. In this sense the Himalaya extend from the Indus Trench below Nanga Parbat (8,125 m) in the west to the Yarlungtsangpo-Brahmaputra gorge below Namche Barwa (7,756 m) in the east, a west-northwest to east-southeast distance of about 2,500 km. This definition includes, politically, the independent kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, a small part of Pakistan, parts of China (Xizang Autonomous Region), as well as the western, central, and eastern sections of the Indian Himalaya (see Figure 2.1): sections 6 (Kashmir Himalaya), 7 (Central Himalaya), and 9 (Assam Himalaya), together with portions of the Plateau (8) and the Plains, as shown on Figure 2.2.
