page_title: Himalayas
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Himalayas / Culture
caption_attribution_description: Shravanabelagola, Karnataka, India
context_page_description: The Himalayas, or Himalaya, is a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has many of Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest, at the border between Nepal and China. The Himalayas include over fifty mountains exceeding 7,200 m in elevation, including ten of the fourteen 8,000-metre peaks. By contrast, the highest peak outside Asia is 6,961 m tall.
  Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate, the Himalayan mountain range runs west-northwest to east-southeast in an arc 2,400 km long. Its western anchor, Nanga Parbat, lies just south of the northernmost bend of the Indus river. Its eastern anchor, Namcha Barwa, is just west of the great bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo River. The Himalayan range is bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush ranges. To the north, the chain is separated from the Tibetan Plateau by a 50–60 km wide tectonic valley called the Indus-Tsangpo Suture. Towards the south, the arc of the Himalaya is ringed by the very low Indo-Gangetic Plain. The range varies in width from 350 km in the west to 150 km in the east.
context_section_description: The Himalayan population belongs to distinct cultural isolated indigenous Himalayan population. Those cultures – Hindu (Indian), Buddhist (Tibetan), Islamic (Afghanistan–Iranian) and Animist (Burmese and southeast Asian) – have created here their own individual and unique place.
  There are many cultural aspects of the Himalayas. In Jainism, Mount Ashtapad in Himalayas is a sacred place where the first Jain Tirthankara, Rishabhdeva attained moksha. It is believed that after Rishabhdeva attained nirvana, his son, Emperor Bharata Chakravartin, had constructed three stupas and twenty four shrines of the 24 Tirthankaras with their idols studded with precious stones over there and named it Sinhnishdha. For the Hindus, the Himalayas are personified as Himavath, the father of the goddess Parvati. The Himalayas is also considered to be the father of the river Ganges. Two of the most sacred places of pilgrimage for the Hindus is the temple complex in Pashupatinath and Muktinath, also known as Saligrama because of the presence of the sacred black rocks called saligrams.
  The Buddhists also lay a great deal of importance on the mountains of the Himalayas. Paro Taktsang is the holy place where Buddhism started in Bhutan. The Muktinath is also a place of pilgrimage for the Tibetan Buddhists. They believe that the trees in the poplar grove came from the walking sticks of eighty-four ancient Indian Buddhist magicians or mahasiddhas. They consider the saligrams to be representatives of the Tibetan serpent deity known as Gawo Jagpa.
  The Himalayan people's diversity shows in many different ways. It shows through their architecture, their languages and dialects, their beliefs and rituals, as well as their clothing. The shapes and materials of the people's homes reflect their practical needs and the beliefs. Another example of the diversity amongst the Himalayan peoples is that handwoven textiles display colors and patterns unique to their ethnic backgrounds. Finally, some people place a great importance on jewellery. The Rai and Limbu women wear big gold earrings and nose rings to show their wealth through their jewellery.
caption: In Indian tradition, Rishabhdev's son Emperor Bharata Chakravartin, after whom India was believed to be named Bharatvarsha attained nirvana at Mount Kailash.[44]
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