River · China, India, Bangladesh
Brahmaputra
The Brahmaputra begins near Mount Kailash in Tibet and flows through China, India and Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal. It creates the world's largest river island along the way.
Picture credit: Deepraj (CC BY 2.5) · Anindita Hazarika156 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Topu Saha (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Brahmaputra?
The river begins at Angsi Glacier, near Mount Kailash, Tibet.
It ends in the Bay of Bengal.
Along the way it passes: Angsi Glacier (source) → Lhatse, Tibet → Shigatse, Tibet → Tsetang, Tibet → Namcha Barwa (Great Bend) → Pasighat, India → Dibrugarh, India → Guwahati, India → Dhubri, India → Bahadurabad, Bangladesh.
Countries on the river: China, India, Bangladesh.
The story behind it
High on the Tibetan Plateau, near the sacred Mount Kailash, glacier meltwater forms the start of the river known there as the Yarlung Tsangpo. It flows east across Tibet for hundreds of kilometres before making a dramatic hairpin turn around a mountain called Namcha Barwa and plunging south into India, where it becomes the Brahmaputra, one of the few major rivers with a masculine name rather than a feminine one in local tradition. In the Indian state of Assam, the river splits around a huge sandbank called Majuli, the largest river island in the world, home to farming villages and rare wildlife. Further downstream in Bangladesh, the Brahmaputra merges with the Ganges River, and together they form the largest river delta on Earth before reaching the Bay of Bengal. Rare Gangetic river dolphins swim in its muddy waters.
Questions children ask
Where does the Brahmaputra River start?
The Brahmaputra starts as glacier meltwater high on the Tibetan Plateau near Mount Kailash, where it is first called the Yarlung Tsangpo. It later flows into India and takes the name Brahmaputra.
How long is the Brahmaputra River?
The Brahmaputra is about 2,900 kilometres long, flowing through China, India and Bangladesh before joining the Ganges River and reaching the Bay of Bengal.
What is Majuli Island?
Majuli is a large river island formed by the Brahmaputra in the Indian state of Assam. It is the biggest river island in the world and is home to farming communities and unique wildlife.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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