Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya; David Zurick, Julsun Pacheco

The political geography of the Himalaya is contested in many places, with China asserting its claim over territory occupied by India and Bhutan, and India asserting its claim over territory occupied by Pakistan and vice versa. The boundary lines that appear on the maps in this atlas represent the most widely accepted designations of country borders; in some cases, again by convention, they appear as something other than a recognized boundary line (for example, the disputed boundary between Pakistan and India in Kashmir is depicted as a “line of control”). Such disagreements about boundary placements suggest the somewhat fluid nature...

The slow, inexorable drift northward of the South Asian continent, beginning about 130 million years ago in the Cretaceous period and continuing into the present day, resulted in the collision of the Indian and Asian continental plates, uplifting huge sections of old, compressed sea floor and creating an extraordinary range of mountains—the Himalaya, which today stands high above all other places on earth. Evidence of this cataclysmic event, and of the mountains’ 60 million–year–old roots, can be found in the landscape, among the twisted strata of exposed rock that show the enormous pressures of buckling and folding,...

The Himalaya is one of the youngest mountain ranges on earth. Its geologic history began 60 million year ago, when India first collided with Asia, but most of its altitude was gained during the last 2 million years. The mountains continue to grow today amid widespread and frequent earthquakes. These seismic tremors signify the geologic forces that produced such spectacular highland terrain, but they also make the Himalaya a tectonically dangerous place to live. The mountains’ propensity for seismic disturbances, their steep terrain, gravity, and the forceful movement of water across the rugged slopes combine to create what geologists call...

The Himalaya is home to the religious and cultural traditions of Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic civilizations, as well as numerous tribes and ethnic groups. Within these diverse societies is a meeting of the spiritual and material, which defines a traditional order for mountain life. This order has led to the devout character of the Himalayan people, to the design of local communities, and to the establishment of historical theocracies in the mountains. It permits the inhabitants to display their distinctive cultural patterns and an astonishing array of lifestyles. And it shapes a landscape in which the textures of human society...

The Himalayan environment provides natural resources for local people as well as for the economic development of mountain states. The villagers traditionally rely on the land for agriculture and livestock grazing; the forests for fuelwood, medicinal herbs, and timber; the rivers and streams for drinking water and crop irrigation; and the native wildlife for game hunting. These age-old practices continue amid the ever-greater requirements of the growing human population. In places where the heightened demand for resources has led to their depletion, the sustainability of village economies and environments may be threatened. Too often the result is human poverty and...

The first persons to explore the Himalaya left no written accounts of their travels. What we know about their ancient journeys—as part of the vast migration of humanity across Asia—is sketchy and comes from the incomplete archaeological record. It is only later, with the appearance of outsiders, that we gain a better record of travel and exploration in the mountains. Among the first documented visitors to the Himalaya were spiritual devotees in search of the legendary lands described in ancient Indian and Tibetan religious texts. According to these traditions, the mountains are filled with divine places—remote and...