NOTES ON EASTERN AND CENTRAL NEPAL

LIEUT.-COLONEL KENNETH MASON

Encouraged by letters received since the publication of last year's Himalayan Journal, vol. vi,¹ and also to illustrate the preceding paper by Mr. J. B. Auden, I have compiled and drawn the accompanying map to show the broad features of relief and drainage of eastern Nepal. The map shows the country to the east of that shown in the Himalayan Journal, vol. vi, p. 86, and includes the Buri Gandaki and Trisuli Gandaki basins of the Gandak river, as well as the whole of the mountain basin of the Kosi and its tributaries, with the exception of the head-waters of the Tibetan tributaries of the Arun, the Phung Ghu and the Yaru Chu. The breaks in the double crest zone of the Great Himalaya between the Himalchuli-Manaslu group and the Kangchenjunga group are well marked. I may perhaps repeat that the main courses of the Buri Gandaki and the Trisuli Gandaki, the two eastern tributaries of the Gandak river, both cut passages through both crest zones. Of the Kosi tributaries, the Sun Kosi and the Arun do the same, almost completely isolating the Lapche Kang, Gho Oyu, and Mount Everest groups, while the Tamba Kosi has almost cut through the northern zone and separated the Lapche Kang from Cho Oyu. The glaciers covering a considerable area immediately to the south of Cho Oyu and Mount Everest appear to have protected the northern crest zone here from destruction, and the Dudh Kosi affords an approach to these great groups which it would be of the utmost geographical interest to explore in detail. The continuity of both zones has been destroyed for some fifty miles by both the Arun and the Tamur, almost as far as Kangchenjunga. The Indrawati and the Likhu Kosi alone of the seven main affluents of the Sapt Kosi make but little impression even on the southern crest zone.

The other four units mentioned by Auden are well seen: the long ridges projecting southwards from the main range to the longitudinal collecting 'drain' of the Sun Kosi: the Mahabharat Lekh, shutting in the Nepal valley by Katmandu on the south and extending WNW. and ESE. as far as the point where the Kosi finds an outlet to the plains of India: the low range of the Siwaliks, roughly parallel to the Mahabharat Lekh, and stopping abruptly at the Sapt Kosi: and the Gangetic alluvial Terai bordering the cultivated plains of Bihar.

 

It will be noted that the watershed between the Phung Ghu and the Tsangpo is off the map to the north. At several points it is less than ten miles from the Tsangpo, and at one point less than five. This watershed follows a very irregular line and varies considerably in height.

With regard to my 'Note on the Nepal Himalaya' in the Himalayan Journal, vol. vi, p. 85, where I discussed the difficulty of reconciling the Annapurna peaks and Macha Puchar of Major Morris's photograph opposite p. 73 with the peaks of the same name on the new map of Nepal, and with reference also to my postscript on pp. 89, 90, giving Major Morris's views, I have received the following letter from Major A. R. Nye, of the 4th Gurkha Rifles:

Malakand, 10 Dec. 1934.

 

Dear Professor Mason,

Morris's article in the 1934 Journal, your comments thereon, and your own article interested me very much. I was in Nepal from August to early November, and aided by several days of brilliantly clear weather, was able to look at the mountains discussed by Morris, though at rather an acute angle, from Kakani, which, as you probably know, is on the divide between the Valley and No. 1 West, approximately north of Katmandu. Unfortunately I had not a telephoto lens in my camera so the films I took are of no value, but I did get an unrivalled view through my glasses.

The notes I made on the spot are as follows:

That is, my observations, for what they are worth, confirm the names and details of your map facing p. 86. I enclose a rough diagram I made from Kakani and also a questionnaire, with the replies I had from the Nepal people.

It seems to me that Morris must be wrong about Dhaulagiri. Almost facing it as he was when he took his photo, surely the Kali Gandaki gorge should have been visible between Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. I suggest that on his photo Annapurna should be Annapurna II, Macha Puchar is correct, but Dhaulagiri should be Annapurna I. His photograph then agrees with your map. The dip on the left of his 'Dhaulagiri', in reality Annapurna I, is probably the beginning of the fall to the Kali gorge.

Yours sincerely,

A. R. Nye.

Major Nye sent a questionnaire to Captain Prakat Man Singh, who referred it to the Nepalese survey officer. The latter confirms the relative positions of Dhaulagiri, Annapurna, and Macha Puchar as given on the map facing page 86 of the last volume of the Journal, and adds that persons living at a distance from the snows are not certain of the correct names, and are likely to name the various peaks indifferently.

[Subsequently I received another letter dated 28 December from Major Nye, of which the following is an extract:]

The 5th Gurkha Rifles sent out an enlargement of Morris's photograph from the Massiang ridge on their Christmas card. I showed it to Gurkha officers of my battalion who come from that part of the world.

They agree that Macha Puchar is correctly named and also say that the next big snow mass to the left, or west, is Dhaulagiri (Dhaulasiri, they called it). They were, however, very definite that Dhaulagiri is on the right or west bank of the Kali, and that Macha Puchar is equally definitely on the left or east bank of the river.

A. R. N.

[Copies of Major Nye's letters and my comments were sent to Major C. J. Morris, who has very kindly sent the following additional note for publication.]

Note by Major C. J. Morris

I think there is little doubt that the views put forward by Major Nye are correct and I am glad to find that he is able to confirm the position of Macha Puchar. When my photographs were taken, the Nepal map sheets were not available and my information concerning the names of the peaks was obtained entirely by questioning the local people; and I entirely agree that persons living at a distance from the snows very often use the names of actual known peaks very loosely. Professor Mason suggests that the real Dhaulagiri was hidden from my view by Sun Danra, a high hill in the foreground (marked on the lower panorama accompanying my paper at p. 73, Himalayan Journal for 1934). This hill would as a matter of fact hide Dhaula- girifrom the whole of the Massiang district: but as the name of that mountain is well known in Central Nepal it seems likely that the local people are using it for the name of what appears to them to be the biggest of the peaks they see.

C. J. M.

Note by Editor

There is not, of course, any doubt whatever that Dhaulagiri is to the west of the Kali gorge and Annapurna and Macha Puchar to the east of it. Major Morris also agrees that 'it would seem from a study of the map that the Kali Gandaki gorge is such a very pronounced gash in the range that it must be visible from any point from which both Dhaulagiri and Annapurna are visible'. We are both agreed that in all probability Dhaulagiri is hidden by Sun Danra in the view from the Massiang ridge, and that the locals of that district probably have incorrect names for the snow massifs seen from here. But undoubtedly the question cannot be finally answered until we have a complete panorama from the summit of Sun Danra.

In a letter dated the 24th January 1935, Morris comments on the identifications, for which he was not responsible, printed at the bottom of the Christmas card of the 5th Gurkha Rifles, referred to by Nye. There is no doubt that some of these are incorrect. For instance, Baglung is many miles away to the west and no 'hills above Baglung' could possibly appear in the view. The whole of this discussion seems to me to be very instructive, for it illustrates the extraordinary difficulty of obtaining correct names for the great Himalayan massifs, which our predecessors had to contend with. No wonder there were such fierce battles over the nomenclature and positions of these peaks in the past, when there were no maps to rely upon!

K. M.

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