Himalaya

Ever since I have departed from Ecuador at the tail end of summer I have always desired to return to the mountains. My dream location would have an abundance of mountains. Furthermore a culture different from Midwestern United States would be preferable. After searching far and wide in google earth virtual reality I have found a place that suits the dream of finding breathtaking landscapes. Following my time looking around on Mount Everest I descended to the nearby cities of Lhasa and Kathmandu where I witnessed spectacular natural beauty. Furthermore the Himalayan range is home to a diverse set of ecosystems in such a compact area.

Just southwest of Mount Everest lies the city of Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, and sight of filming for Doctor Strange. Nepal is home to a plethora of temples, pagodas, stupas, and breathtaking landscapes. Along many daunting suspension bridges across the many gorges of Nepal prayer flags are erected to carry blessings downwind. Throughout my early years I have always desired to own Nepalese prayer flags. Originating from watching the movie Everest I became fascinated by these items. In fact there are other unique objects associated with Buddhism, prayer wheels, which have engraved mantras. When these wheels are spun it is believed to be equal, spiritually, to reading the mantra to one’s self.

Northeast of Mount Everest stands the city of Lhasa, capital of the Chinese autonomous region Tibet, in the heart of the Tibetan plateau. Translating to “city of the gods” Lhasa lives up to its name practically built in the clouds and hosting the lustrous Potala Palace. Winter home of the Dalai Lama turned museum, Potala Palace was erected on a hill in the center of Lhasa. Focal point of the city the beauty of Potala Palace has an equally stunning mountainous backdrop from every angle. The mountainous landscape north of Lhasa becomes progressively more arid until reaching the Gobi Desert where ice meets snaking sand dunes. In the Gobi desert camels subsist on eating snow to get water while they are being battered by sand. These sites at first glance seem to be fictional however after analysis geology and climate science has made Southern Central Asia the most metal place on earth.

 The Himalayan Mountains stunning topography is due to the convergence of the Eurasian and Indian-Australian tectonic plates. This perpetual collision causes the Indian-Australian Plate to submerge into the mantel of the earth, just below the thin layer of earth’s crust on which we inhabit. As the Indian-Australian plate moves under the Eurasian Plate, so too does the Eurasian Plate rise toward the sky sending eroded tectonic plate fragments, Himalayan Mountains, towards the sky. The mountains then go onto influence climatic functions to the north and south of the Himalayas. To the north the aforementioned Gobi Desert was created by the Himalayas prevents moisture to travel from India to the Gobi desert. Meanwhile, the sheer distance and topography of Central Asia prevents the Arctic and Pacific Ocean from interacting with the swath of fringed sand. Despite the association of deserts with heat the Gobi receives snow. Carried by winds snow from the Himalayas to forms snow drifts, on which the aforementioned camels feed for hydration. To the south the Indian subcontinent is subject to climatic phenomena due to the presence of the Himalayas. Half caused by the inter-continental-convergences-zone and the remainder caused by the Himalayas the monsoon ravages the Indian subcontinent like no other landmass. As the northern hemisphere experiences summer the Bay of Bengal fills with precipitous clouds that then move to the northwest nearly submerging the people experiencing this event.