After flowing through Tibet, the Brahmaputra takes a sharp U-turn around which mountain before entering Arunachal Pradesh?

The Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo) makes a dramatic hairpin bend around the Namcha Barwa massif in south-eastern Tibet, before flowing south into Arunachal Pradesh.

About Namcha Barwa:

• It is about 7,782 metres high.
• It is regarded as the easternmost major peak of the Himalayas, marking the eastern end of the range.
• It was first climbed in 1992 by a joint Chinese-Japanese expedition.

The great bend of the Brahmaputra:

• The Yarlung Tsangpo flows east through southern Tibet for about 1,200 km.
• Near Namcha Barwa, it turns sharply north-east and then south-west and south, cutting through the Himalayas between Namcha Barwa and Gyala Peri.
• This bend creates the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, one of the deepest and longest canyons in the world, more than 5,000 metres deep in places.
• The river then enters India in Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang (Dihang).

The western end of the Himalayas:

• Nanga Parbat (8,126 metres), in Gilgit-Baltistan, is considered the western end of the Himalayas, where the Indus makes a similar sharp bend.
• So, the Himalayas are often said to lie between the bends of the Indus in the west and the Brahmaputra in the east.

Hydroelectric plans:

China has begun a very large hydropower project on the lower Yarlung Tsangpo near this bend, which has raised concerns in India and Bangladesh about water flow.

Geography of the eastern Himalayas:

Beyond Namcha Barwa, the mountains turn south into the Purvanchal hills (Patkai, Naga, Mizo hills) along India's border with Myanmar.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Kangchenjunga is on the India-Nepal border in Sikkim.
• ✗Gyala Peri is a peak on the opposite side of the gorge from Namcha Barwa.
• ✗Makalu is in Nepal, near Mount Everest.