Ruth Gamble on the Pure One: the Yarlung Tsangpo River through history

Across the Himalayas, the Yarlung Tsangpo River runs from Tibet through the disputed borders of China and India. Ruth Gamble, a cultural and environmental historian of Tibet, spoke about the river as part of the Yale Himalaya Initiative’s Fall Reception on Oct. 11. Bringing YHI into its seventh year at Yale, Gamble led the audience of over 40 students and faculty through a discussion of the river’s history.

In her lecture entitled “Fear of the Pure One: What the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River’s History Can Tell Us About Asia’s Water Future,” Gamble spoke about the influence of the river’s watershed on people’s lives today. According to Gamble, approximately 200 million people from India and China live in the watershed, relying on the river for water resources and generating goods of economic value. (continue to article)