Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “The Magnificent Himalayas” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

The Magnificent Himalayas

Himalayas (Sanskrit for ‘Abode of Snow’) is the name given to the greatest mountain chain on the planet. It separates the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan plateau and stretches across six countries viz. Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The range-proper runs from west to east, from the Indus river valley to the Brahmaputra river valley thereby forming an arc about 2400 km long. They reach their maximum heights in Nepal.

The Great Himalayas contain a cluster of nine of the world’s fourteen highest peaks, including Mount Everest (the highest peak in the world) at 29029 ft, situated on Nepal/Tibet border, K2 (the second highest in the world) at 28251 ft situated in Pakistan and China and Kanchenjunga (the third highest in the world) at 28169 ft situated in India and Nepal. To the north of the Himalayas is the range known as Tethys, or Tibetan Himalayas.

Fossils of fish and other sea creatures found in the Himalayas prove that the rocks that comprise these massive mountains originated as marine deposits at the floor of the ancient Tethys Ocean. As the crustal plate bearing India drifted north towards the mainland of Asia and collided with it, the Himalayan mountain chain was thrust upward between 7 and 38 million years ago. The movement is still continuing. Everest is ‘growing’ by about 2 inches (50mm) a year.

The region is steeped in religion and myth, regarded as the dwelling of Buddhist and Hindu deities, including Lord Shiva (one of the trinity of Hindu gods) and from his abode in the permanent snowfields of Himalayas, flow the life-giving waters of three of the major rivers, the Indus, the Brahmaputra and the Ganges.

In the early 19th century, hunters who visited this area, brought back the local tales of strange footprints in the snow — the first hint of the existence of yeti (the snowman); although nobody has seen him yet.

The mighty peaks of Himalayas rise above the line of perpetual snow, glistening purest white in brilliant sunlight. When the sun slips towards the western horizon, its rays bathe the summit in a soft red glow and shadows chase each other across pink crests. As the light dims and night thickens, the gagged black peaks are outlined against an inky, starry sky. This is a land of supernatural beauty on an immense scale where colossal mountains tower skywards.

Even today the Himalayas evoke an image of a lost land, untouched by human hand and home only to solitary ascetics and abominable snowman, and since the 20th century, to represent the ultimate goal for the climbers.

Mount Everest was known as Peak XV until 1862, when the British named it as Everest, after Sir George Everest, the then Surveyor General of India. George Mallory (1924) was the first to make an unsuccessful attempt to climb to the top of the world. The first success was achieved on 29 May 1953 by a New Zealander, Edmund Hillary and the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay who together, made history and achieved ultimate glory by reaching the summit of Everest. So far only about 400 people have succeeded in standing on the ‘roof of the world’ , among them being three proud Indian women-climbers — the first, Bachendri Pal in 1984, Santosh Yadav, twice, in 1992 and 1993, and Dicky Dolma in 1993. Lately, on Thursday 8 May 2008, a team of 12 Chinese climbers successfully carried the Olympic Torch to the top of Mount Everest in celebration of the forthcoming Olympics in their country. They also did an approx. 30m relay run, led by a Tibetan woman Cireng Wangmu, with the Torch on the summit.

Rightly, the magnificent Himalayas have been escribed by a noted Hindi poet Maithilisharan Gupt as: 

`Giriraj Yehi, Nagraj yehi, jan-ni ka gauray. swargdham,

Dunia Mein jitney bhi giri hein, sab jhuk karte isko pranam’

Meaning ‘He is the king of the mountains, he is heaven on earth where gods reside and all the mountains of this world bend before him to salute him.’