BRAHMAPUTRA RIVER

The Brahmaputra and Ganges river basins and their drainage network. Bengali Jamuna, Chinese (Wade-Giles) Ya-lu-tsang-pu Chiang, or (Pinyin) Yarlung Zangbo Jiang, Tibetan Tsang-po, major river of Central and South Asia. It flows some 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometres) from its source in the Himalayas to its confluence with the Ganges River, after which the mingled waters of the two rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal. Along its course it passes through the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, and Bangladesh. For most of its length, the river serves as an important inland waterway; it is not, however, navigable between the mountains of Tibet and the plains of India. In its lower course, the river is both a creator and a destroyerdepositing huge quantities of fertile alluvial soil but also causing disastrous and frequent floods. Stupa on the bank of the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River near Song-i, Tibet. Bengali Jamuna, Wade-Giles romanization Ya-lu-tsang-pu Chiang, Pinyin Yarlung Zangbo Jiang, Tibetan Tsang-po major river of Central and South Asia flowing approximately 1,800 miles (2,900 km) from its source in the Tibetan Himalayas to its confluence with the Ganges River. From its headstreams in Tibet, the Brahmaputra runs eastward nearly 700 miles (1,125 km) across southwestern China between the main Himalayan range to the south and the Nien-ch'ing-t'ang-ku-la Mountains to the north. It then turns south through the eastern Himalayas and enters Arunachal Pradesh state and then Assam state in northeastern India. The Brahmaputra takes a southwesterly course for 450 miles (724 km) through the Assam Valley, then turns south again, passing through Bangladesh toward the Bay of Bengal, where it forms, with the Ganges and Meghna rivers, a vast delta. The drainage basin of the Brahmaputra covers about 250,000 square miles (650,000 square km) and includes 24 major tributaries. The climate of the basin varies from the harsh, cold, and dry conditions found in Tibet to the generally hot, humid, and rainy conditions prevailing in the Assam Valley and Bangladesh. Among the Brahmaputra's important hydrologic features are its constant changes in course and its tendency to flood yearly along its lower course because of heavy rainfall and the huge discharges of the tributary Tista, Torsa, and Jaldhaka rivers. During the rainy season the Brahmaputra has an estimated discharge of more than 500,000 cubic feet (14,000 cubic m) per second. Flood-control projects were initiated in the 1950s. The Brahmaputra is navigable throughout the Bengal Plain and Assam upstream to Dibrugarh, 700 miles (1,130 km) from the sea. Near La-tzu (Lhatse Dzong) the river opens into a navigable channel for about 400 miles (645 km). The growth of heavy river transport has been important to the continuing development of the economic resources in the lower Brahmaputra valley, including tea estates, forests, and oil, coal, and natural-gas deposits in Assam and jute in Bangladesh. Additional reading Descriptions of the Brahmaputra are found in surveys of the corresponding regions, such as R.L. Singh (ed.), India: A Regional Geography (1971); and B.C. Law (ed.), Mountains and Rivers of India (1968). The Brahmaputra River and the Assam Valley are treated in H.P. Das, Geography of Assam (1970); The Brahmaputra Beckons (1982), a descriptive anthology; and Jere Van Dyk, Long Journey of the Brahmaputra, National Geographic, 174(5):672711 (November 1988). Deryck O. Lodrick