TRANS-HIMALAYA AND TIBET 



By FELIX OSWALD, D.Sc, B.A., F.G.S. 



Exception has been taken by some geographers to Dr. Sven 

 Hedin's use of the name Trans-Himalaya to designate the 

 lofty system of ranges which he recently explored on the north 

 side of the head-waters of the Brahmaputra and the Indus. 

 The chief objection seems to lie in the transference of the term 

 from its somewhat vague reference by Sir Alexander Cunning- 

 ham ^ or by Colonel Godwin-Austen^ to the mountains north 

 of the Upper Indus and Brahmaputra to a more restricted 

 usage for a system or rather zone of mountains lying between 

 the Brahmaputra (or Tsangpo) and the actual plateau of Tibet. 

 Lord Curzon has already remarked, with reference to the con- 

 troversy, that a similar objection might be raised to the use of 

 the word Trans-Alai, which, however, is well established for 

 a range bearing an analogous orientation relatively to the 

 Alai range of the Tian-Shan as the Trans-Himalayan system 

 does to the Himalaya. Dr. Hedin,^ moreover, is careful to lay 

 stress on the fact that the Trans-Himalaya — in the sense in 

 which he uses the term — is not a single range, but consists 

 of a number of parallel chains, extending for 590 miles, between 

 the Khalamba-La Pass in the east and the Jukti-La Pass in the 

 west ; in other words, between the eighty-first and ninetieth 

 meridians. He also states explicitly"* that "between these limits 

 lie all the passes, by crossing which I was able to trace the 

 course of the Trans-Himalaya and prove that its known eastern 

 and western sections are connected and belong to the same 

 mountain system, and that this system is one of the loftiest 

 and mightiest in the world, only to be compared with the 

 Himalayas, the Karakoram, Arka-tag and Kuen-lun. On the 

 north and south its boundaries are sharp and clearly defined ; 



' Ladak and Swrounding Countries^ Physical^ Statistical and Historical. 

 London, 1854. 



* Proc. Roy. Ceog. Soc. 1883, p. 610, and 1884, p. 83. 

 ' Trans-Himalaya^ ii. p. 403. London, 1909. 



* Op. cit. p. 410. 



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