The Tibetan Plateau plays a significant role globally due to its large size, high elevation, and impact on climate patterns. It covers over 2.5 million square kilometers with an average elevation of 4,500 meters. The Plateau gives rise to six major Asian rivers and supports nearly half the world's population. It also contains the largest number of glaciers outside of the polar regions and regulates the Asian monsoon, making its climate stability crucial. However, the Plateau is experiencing temperature increases twice the global average and rapid glacial retreat, threatening water supply and increasing extreme weather events.

1. The Global Significance of Tibetan Plateau
Venue: Tibet Museum
2014/09/12
By: Tempa Gyaltsen Zamlha
TIBET POLICY INSTITUTE
Tibet Policy Institute 1

2. •Area 2.5 million sq. km or
• close to 2% of earth’s land surface.
•Average elevation of 4500 m asl.
•World’s 100 highest peaks of
above 7000 m asl found here.
•14 great mountain ranges.
•Highest and largest Plateau
possibly ever existed.
•Rise of the Tibetan Plateau about
50 million years ago
Roof of the World
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3. Water Tower of Asia
•Source of Asia’s 6 greatest rivers
• Flowing into 9 most populated
nations
•Supporting almost half of world
population
•Drainage basin more than 6
million km2
•Hundreds other smaller stream
and tributaries also flow from
Tibet.
The SIX major Asian river are
Yangtze( Drichu), Yellow (Machu), Mekong(Zachu), Indus (Senge Khabab),
Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo), Salween River (Gyalmo Ngulchu.
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4. No
.
Tibetan
Name
Common
Name
Lengt
h
(KM)
Watershed Region
1 Drichu Yangtze 6380 Tibet and China
2 Machu Yellow 5464 Tibet, China
3 Zachu Mekong 4500 Tibet, China, Vietnam,
Laos, Cambodia,
Thailand
4 Senge
Khabab
Indus 3100 Tibet,India and
Pakistan
5 Gyalmo
Nyulchu
Salween 2800 Tibet, China, Burma,
Thailand
6 Yarlung
Tsangpo
Brahmaputra 2900 Tibet, India and
Bangladesh
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5. •Home to 46,000 glaciers
•Covering area of
105,000 km2
•Largest source of accessible
fresh water
•Has largest number of glaciers
beyond south and north poles
•Glacial melting feeds many of
the south Asian greatest rivers.
•Its an island of snow
mountains in the sky which
acts as atmospheric cooler
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6. Source: Tandong Yao et al, 21012; DOI:
10.1038/NCLIMATE1580
The Rain Maker
•Plays a pivotal role in generating
and regulating Asian Monsoon.
•Temperature rise on the Plateau
twice more than global average
•Timing and intensity of Indian
monsoon depend on atmospheric
temperature on Tibetan Plateau
•Its also called as the barometer of
Asia
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7. The actual Impacts
Temperature rise on Tibetan Plateau twice more than global average
Present decade has been the hottest in last 2000 years
There has been continues rise of temperature and precipitation for the last 50 years
•Increase in severe weather pattern causing frequent natural calamities
•unpredictable monsoon, leads to rise in food price &Social Instability.
•Rapid melting of glaciers, results in glacier lake outburst floods.
•Permafrost degradation and glacier retreat threaten the survival of great rivers of Asia.
•Increase of river volume in short term Resulting in floods but danger of rivers been dried up
in long run.
•Shortage of drinking water in most part of south east Asian countries.
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8. Glacier Retreat གངས་རི་བྲག་རིར་འགྱུར་བ།
Tibet Policy Institute 8

9. རྩྭ་ཐང་བྱེ་ཐང་དུ་འགྱུར་བ།
Desertification of Grassland
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10. Tibet Policy Institute 10

11. Tibet Policy Institute
གནས་ཚུལ་འབྲྱེལ་གཏུགས་ཀི་ཁ་བང་།
For more information, please visit us at:
edd@tibet.net
t wwwww.tibet.net www.tibetpolicy.net