Yarlung Tsangpo yar klung gtsang po ཡར་ཀླུང་གཙང་པོ། 雅鲁藏布江 | |
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Location | |
Country | China, India |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Angsi Glacier in Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region, China |
• coordinates | 30°23′N 82°0′E / 30.383°N 82.000°E |
• elevation | 5,210 m (17,090 ft) |
Mouth | |
• coordinates | 29°7′40.8036″N 95°1′19.8264″E / 29.128001000°N 95.022174000°E |
• elevation | 535 m (1,755 ft) |
Length | 1,125 km (699 mi)[1] |
Basin size | 241,691 km2 (93,317 sq mi)[2] |
Discharge | |
• average | 2,898.9 m3/s (102,370 cu ft/s)[2] |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Raka Tsangpo, Nimu Maqu, Lhasa, Nyang |
The Yarlung Tsangpo, also called Yarlung Zangbo (Tibetan: ཡར་ཀླུངས་གཙང་པོ་, Wylie: yar kLungs gTsang po, ZYPY: Yarlung Zangbo) and Yalu Zangbu River (Chinese: 雅鲁藏布江; pinyin: Yǎlǔzàngbù Jiāng) is located in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is the longest river of Tibet and the fifth longest in China.[3] The upper section is also called Dangque Zangbu meaning "Horse River."[4][5]
Originating at Angsi Glacier in western Tibet, southeast of Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, it later forms the South Tibet Valley and Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon before passing into the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Downstream from Arunachal Pradesh, the river becomes far wider and is called the Siang. After reaching Assam, the river is known as the Brahmaputra. From Assam, the river enters Bangladesh at Ramnabazar. From there until about 200 years ago it used to flow eastward and joined the Meghna River near Bhairab Upazila. This old channel has been gradually dying. At present the main channel of the river is called Jamuna River, which flows southward to meet the Ganges, which in Bangladesh is called the Padma.
When leaving the Tibetan Plateau, the river forms the world's largest and deepest canyon, Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon.[6]
The river that carries the drainage of Nari-Mangyul and Utsang to the south-eastward is called by the Tibetans the rTachok Tsangspo, i.e. Horse River. The best of my Ladak informants could not assure me positively of its course below Lhasa, but assented fully to its identification with the main trunk of the Brahmaputra river, as asserted (and all but established) by the geographers of Bengal.