Yarlung Tsangpo River

The Yarlung Tsangpo is the part of Brahmaputra River that flows through Tibet, known by its Tibetan name. It originates at Angsi Glacier in western Tibet southeast of Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar. It later forms the South Tibet Valley and Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon before passing through the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India, where it is known as Siang.

It is sometimes called Yarlung Zangbo or Yarlung Zangbo Jiang (Tibetan: ཡར་ཀླུངས་གཙང་པོ་, Wylie: yar kLungs gTsang po, ZYPY: Yarlung Zangbo ), or Yalu Zangbu River (simplified Chinese: 雅鲁藏布江; traditional Chinese: 雅魯藏布江; pinyin: Yǎlǔ Zàngbù Jiāng). The part Tsangpo denotes a river flowing from or through Tsang, meaning Tibet west of Lhasa.

Downstream from Arunachal Pradesh the river becomes wider and at this point is called the Siang. After reaching Assam, the river is known as Brahmaputra. From Assam, the river enters Bangladesh at Ramnabazar. From there until about 200 years ago it used to flow eastward and joined the Meghna River near Bhairab Upazila. This old channel has been gradually dying now. At present the main channel of the river is called Jamuna River, which flows southward to meet Ganges, which in Bangladesh is called the Padma.