Gar Tsangpo (; ), also called Gartang or Gar River, is a headwater of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kash ...

in the

Ngari Prefecture Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture () is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and largest settlement is the town of Shiquanhe. History Ng ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

, China. It merges with other headwater, Sênggê Zangbo, near the village of Tashigang to form the

. The combined river flows in the same valley and in the same direction as Gar Tsangpo. Thus by physical geography, Gar Tsangpo is the "Indus River". The Tibetans however regard Sênggê Zangbo as the main Indus River, and treat Gar Tsangpo as a tributary.

Gartok Gartok (), is made of twin encampment settlements of Gar Günsa and Gar Yarsa (, Wade–Giles: ''Ka-erh-ya-sha'') in the Gar County in the Ngari Prefecture of Tibet. Gar Gunsa served as the winter encampment and Gar Yarsa as the summer encampment ...

, the former administrative headquarters of Ngari is in the Gar Valley. The present headquarters, under PRC administration, is at Shiquanhe in the Sênggê Zangbo valley, close to the point of confluence of the two rivers.

Course

The sources of Gartang are on the southwestern slopes of the Kailas Range (Gangdise Shan). From there, the river flows northwest in the Gar Valley, the tectonic valley between the Kailas Range and the Ladakh Range. The slope of the valley is extremely gentle, only about 2 metres per kilometre. After a distance of , the Gartang joins Sengge Zangbo (Shiquan He), which originates on the northern slopes of Mount Kailas and flows in a wide arc towards the Gar Valley. The point of confluence is near the town of Tashigang (Zhaxigang). After the confluence, the combined river, regarded as the

, flows in the same direction as Gartang. For this reason, western explorers have traditionally regarded Gartang as the main source of the Indus River. However, the Tibetans regard Sengge Zangbo as the main Indus River and the Gartang as its tributary. The Gartang river drains an area of 6,060 km2.

History

Two well-known villages cum encampments, Gar Yarsa and Gar Gunsa, lie along the course of the Gartang, separated by . The two locations together have been called "Gartok" and served as the administrative headquarters of Ngari (West Tibet) during the Ganden Phodrang administration of Tibet. The Lhasa-appointed administrator, called Garpön, used to stay at Gar Yarsa during the summemr months, and at Gar Gunsa during the winter. After the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1950, the headquarters of Ngari was moved to a new town of Shiquanhe on the Sengge Zangbo river.

References

Bibliography

* {{citation , last=I︠U︡sov , first=B. V. , title=Physical Geography of Tibet , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qU_WAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA81 , year=1959 , publisher=U.S. Joint Publications Research Service , ref={{sfnref, I︠U︡sov, Physical Geography of Tibet, 1959 Rivers of Tibet Tributaries of the Indus River