welcome to the land of himalayan paradise

Friday, July 4, 2008

Interesting Facts About the Himalaya




Top of the world Mt Everest. and some of the interesting fact about himalaya and Nepal. Welcome to the land of Himilayan paradise.





* The word 'Himalaya' means the home or abode of snow.
* According to Hindu mythology, God Shiva resides in the Himalaya.
* There are eight peaks with a total of 19 points above 8000 metres in Nepal.
* Fourteen mountains in the Himalaya exceed 8000 metres.
* There are 25 points in all which exceed 8000 metres in the Himalaya.
* Nameha Barwa peak is the easternmost and Nanga Parbat is the westernmost peak of the Himalaya.
* The geological age of the Himalaya is approximately 70 million years.
* Himalayan rivers are older than the Himalayan peaks.
* Kumbhakarna is the new name of mount Jannu (7,710 m).
* Gosainthan (8046 m) is the Nepali name for Shisha Pangma.
* Ninety-five percent of earthquakes occur in mountainous regions.
* Sir Andrew Waugh, Surveyor General of India wished to honour his predecessor, Sir George Everest. For this, Sir Andrew pretended that there was no local name for Everest and hence named the mountain as Mount Everest though there were two local names of the mountain. e.g. Sagarmatha in Nepal and Chomolungma in Tibet.
* Sir Andrew Waugh announced the name 'Mount Everest' in 1865.
* The ideal height gain per day for mountaineers is 1,000 ft above 10,000 ft.
* Nepal opened its borders to the world in 1949.
* Mallory described Mount Everest from Rongbuk as, 'a great white fang excrescent on the jawbone of the earth'.
* Why do men climb Everest ? Mallory said, "Because it is there."
* Sir Edmund Hillary led an expedition to find the Yeti in 1958.
* According to Dr. George Schaller, the existence of Yeti unknown to science cannot be ruled out at high altitude.
* Reinhold Messner climbed Everest alone without oxygen.
* Tenzing buried his daughter's red and blue pencils on the top of Everest.
* Approximately 150 people have died in different expeditions of Mount Everest so far.
* Tenzing was known as 'Himalayan Club Sherpa No 48'.