The Tibetan name Bum-chu may refer to a religious ceremony attempting to divine prospects for

the coming year from the level of water in a pot or well, [3][4] chu is the Tibetan word for water. The
river originates near Gutso in Nyalam County of Tibet. Around 17 kilometres (11 mi) downstream
the Men-chu joins it. The Tingri county occupies the upper reaches of the Bum-chu and the
lateral valleys formed by its tributaries, the foremost of which are Lolo-chu, Shel-chu, Rongpuchu, Trakar-chu, Kharda-chu, Ra-chu Tsangpo, and Langkor Gya-chu. The Yeru Tsanpo
confluences with Bum-chu in Tingkye County, which accommodates the lower Bum-chu valley.
Another river that meets Bum-chu is Trakar-chu. The river flows past the town of Kharda,
gateway to the Khangzhung east face of Everest. The force of its accumulated waters carves its
way, south of Drengtrang, through the main chain of the Himalayas directly between the
mountain massifs ofMakalu and Kangchenjunga into Nepal.[2] [5] Since the river's elevation is
about 3,500 metres (11,500 ft) at the border while Makalu and Kangchenjunga are both about
8,500 metres (27,900 ft), the valley is some 5,000 metres (16,000 ft) deep, one of the world's
deepest.
The Arun is the largest trans-Himalayan river passing through Nepal and also has the greatest
snow and ice-covered area of any Nepalese river basin. The Arun drains more than half of the
area contributing to the Sapta Kosi river system but provides only about a quarter of the total
discharge. This apparent contradiction is caused by the location of more than 80 percent of the
Arun's drainage area in the rain shadow of the Himalayas. Average annual rainfall in Tibet is
about 300 millimetres (12 in).[9]
The river leaves the Tibet region at a height of about 3,500 metres (11,500 ft) and crosses the
main Himalayan ranges. Leaving their rain shadow, the river's flow increases substantially in
the monsoonal climate of east Nepal. The landscape south of the border tends to be steep with
less than 15 percent of the area having a sustained slope of less than 15 and is strongly
dissected by stream channels. Many of the hill slopes are structurally unstable, and the region is
seismically active. An earthquake in August 1988, with an epicentre more than 50 km south of
the Arun basin, had a magnitude of 6.7 on the Richter scale and resulted in more than 100
deaths in the basin alone.
The northern third of the Nepalese portion of the Arun basin supports a rich, though humanmodified, forest of mixed hardwoods, Chir pine, fir, and rhododendron at elevations of over 1,000
metres (3,300 ft). The vegetation in the southern two-thirds of the area has been extensively
modified for subsistence agriculture. Most of the half-million people in the Arun basin live in this
southern area between 300 metres (980 ft) and 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) in widely scattered
villages near the slopes they farm.[10]