It is the second episode in this ground breaking series of natural history films about the Brahmaputra River. The story of a river that has as yet never been told. For Hindus this river is the Son of the Creator. Of all the rivers that flow through the subcontinent the Brahmaputra is the only river to be considered male. All the rest, like the Ganges, are female. From its birthplace in the far west of Tibet and called the Yarlung-Tsangpo the river follows the suture line where the Indian subcontinent is still colliding with the Asian landmass, forcing it upwards. Dropping from the Tibetan Plateau, the river abruptly changes direction to flow to the south, cutting its way through the great mountain range of the Himalaya. Once crossing into India the river changes its name, cuts its way through the foothills and emerges onto the plains of India where it joins the Brahmaputra itself. The river now is wide and flows through many braided channels, and the direction is back toward the west. The river is still a dynamic force upon the re ... It is the second episode in this ground breaking series of natural history films about the Brahmaputra River. The story of a river that has as yet never been told. For Hindus this river is the Son of the Creator. Of all the rivers that flow through the subcontinent the Brahmaputra is the only river to be considered male. All the rest, like the Ganges, are female. From its birthplace in the far west of Tibet and called the Yarlung-Tsangpo the river follows the suture line where the Indian subcontinent is still colliding with the Asian landmass, forcing it upwards. Dropping from the Tibetan Plateau, the river abruptly changes direction to flow to the south, cutting its way through the great mountain range of the Himalaya. Once crossing into India the river changes its name, cuts its way through the foothills and emerges onto the plains of India where it joins the Brahmaputra itself. The river now is wide and flows through many braided channels, and the direction is back toward the west. The river is still a dynamic force upon the region it flows through and every living thing is impacted by it. The valley of the Brahmaputra is the centre of one of the richest ecological areas on the planet; a region known as the East Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspot. This episode of the Brahmaputra series is centred on the region where the watershed flows directly into the Brahmaputra Basin, from India’s mountainous state of Sikkim in the west to the trans Himalaya mountains that border Tibet and Myanmar in the east. The area’s ecological riches have evolved because of the extreme diversity of habitats and climates contained within the region. In just over 200 kilometres the land falls from over 5,000 metres to just over 100 metres. There are high and seasonal Alpine grasslands, coniferous and broadleaf forests that merge with rainforest before dropping down to rich alluvial floodplains made fertile from silt created in the uplands of the Himalaya. However, most of the silt is carried on down toward the ocean by the Brahmaputra and its myriad tributaries. During the hot summer months the plains of India bake in the searing heat. As the ground heats, the winds shift to draw in moisture from the Indian Ocean. As the moisture laden clouds rise they cool and torrential rain falls to bring life back to an arid country. These annual rains allowed for the first farmers to plant crops and to change their lifestyle from being seasonal nomads to living in settlements that were to become large settlements and give birth to human culture. more