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-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

in the

Ngari Prefecture Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture ( zh, s=阿里地区 , t=阿里地區 , p=Ālǐ Dìqū) is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and large ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. It merges with other headwater,

Sênggê Zangbo Sengge Zangbo, Sengge Khabab () or Shiquan He () is a river in the Ngari Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China that is the source stream of the Indus River, one of the major trans-Himalayan rivers of Central and South Asia. The river ...

, 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 China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...

administration, is at

Shiquanhe Shiquanhe (), known in Tibetan as Sênggêkanbab () or Sênggêzangbo, is the main town (China), town and administrative seat of Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Shiquanhe is located on the bank of Sênggê Zangbo, the river sour ...

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 Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; ; ; , ) is a mountain in Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It lies in the Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains) of the Transhimalaya, in the western part of ...

(Gangdise Shan). From there, the river flows northwest in the Gar Valley, the tectonic valley between the Kailas Range and the

Ladakh Range The Ladakh Range is a mountain range in central Ladakh in India with its northern tip extending into Baltistan in Pakistan. It lies between the Indus and Shyok river valleys, stretching to 230 miles (370 km). Leh, the capital city of Lada ...

. The slope of the valley is extremely gentle, only about 2 metres per kilometre. After a distance of , the Gartang joins

Sengge Zangbo Sengge Zangbo, Sengge Khabab () or Shiquan He () is a river in the Ngari Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China that is the source stream of the Indus River, one of the major trans-Himalayan rivers of Central and South Asia. The river ...

(Shiquan He), which originates on the northern slopes of

Mount Kailas Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; ; ; , ) is a mountain in Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It lies in the Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains) of the Transhimalaya, in the western part of ...

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 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. ...

and

Gar Gunsa Gars are an ancient group of ray-finned fish in the family Lepisosteidae. They comprise seven living species of fish in two genera that inhabit fresh, brackish, and occasionally marine waters of eastern North America, Central America and Cuba in ...

, 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 The Ganden Phodrang or Ganden Podrang (; ) was the Tibetan system of government established by the 5th Dalai Lama in 1642, when the Oirat lord Güshi Khan who founded the Khoshut Khanate conferred all spiritual and political power in Tibet t ...

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 Tibet came under the control of People's Republic of China (PRC) after the Government of Tibet signed the Seventeen Point Agreement which the 14th Dalai Lama ratified on 24 October 1951, but later repudiated on the grounds that he had rendere ...

in 1950, the headquarters of Ngari was moved to a new town of

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