ABSTRACT
South of the crystalline core in the Great Himalaya the rocks are exceedingly varied: slates, phyllites, schists, quartzites, for the most part, probably, of Dharwarian and Vindhyan age. Very different from these rivers is the Sutlej, which breaks right through both the Great Himalaya and the Zaskar Ranges, thus forming perhaps the most striking physical feature of the region. The region thus includes the Himalayan basins of the Yamuna, Ganga, Ramganga and Sarda. The northern boundary lay by tradition along the watershed north of the Great Himalayan Range, but until the 1962 China-Nepal Boundary Agreement was undefined; Everest itself is still in dispute. The Great Himalaya are the region of nappe roots; their great height and transverse gorges the result of earlier horizontal thrusts squeezed 'like toothpaste from a tube'. To the north the cultural landscape of agriculture and Hinduism gradually gives way to that of pastoral Tibet: in northeastern Bashahr polyandry is prevalent, and religion and language are transitional.
