Transhimalaya and the sources of the Indus, Sutlej and Brahmaputra (Hedin)
Transhimalaya y fuentes del Indo, el Sutlej y el Brahmaputra (Hedin)
- Date
- 1906-1908 · confidence high
- Place
- Lake Manasarovar, Tibet Autonomous Region, China
- Credited to
- Sven Hedin
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A Swedish expedition across western Tibet that mapped the range north of the Himalaya, which Hedin named the Transhimalaya, and fixed the location of the sources of the Indus, Sutlej and Brahmaputra. It provided the first reliable map of the region.
Indian pundits and other travellers had covered part of the area and the so-called "Transhimalaya" corresponds to the Gangdise-Nyenchen Tanglha range; priority over the sources is disputed.
What it led to
- a reliable map of western Tibet and the Gangdise range
- identification of the sources of three great Asian rivers