Wanderlust World Wanderlust World The Brahmaputra—one of Asia's mightiest rivers—begins its 2,900-kilometer journey at the Angsi Glacier on the northern flank of the Himalayas, in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, at an elevation of approximately 5,210 meters (17,093 feet).
In Tibet, the river is known as the Yarlung Tsangpo. It flows eastward for about 1,700 km parallel to the main Himalayan range, carving the spectacular Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon—the world's deepest and longest canyon (5,000+ m relief, 500+ km long). This section passes through remote, high-altitude terrain with limited human settlement.
Near Mount Namcha Barwa (7,782 m), the river makes a dramatic hairpin turn—the "Great Bend"—plunging south through the Himalayas via the Tsangpo Gorge. It enters India's Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang (or Dihang), then widens in the Assam Valley as the Brahmaputra proper.
From Assam, the river flows westward through Bangladesh (as the Jamuna), where it merges with the Ganges (Padma) and Meghna to form the world's largest delta—the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta (Sundarbans)—before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.
The Brahmaputra's Tibetan source makes it a rare major river that flows east before turning south—a testament to the Himalayas' role as Asia's water tower.