Changthang

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A vast, cold, high-altitude plateau stretching across northwestern Tibet and the Ladakh region of northern India
2. An extensive windswept upland plain of western Tibet and Ladakh, lying at very great elevation and sparsely inhabited
3. The large, barren, high-elevation tableland in the Tibetan and Ladakhi borderlands, known for its harsh climate and nomadic herders

Etymology: Changthang is the high, cold plateau that stretches across the far west of the Tibetan Plateau, and its name is simply a Tibetan description of the land. It comes from Tibetan "byang thang", where "byang" means "north" and "thang" means "plain" or "flat expanse". The name therefore reads as "northern plain", a plain label for a landscape that lies north of the central Tibetan heartlands. The word appears in English mostly in the spelling "Changtang" or, less often, "Changthang", and both forms point to the same Tibetan original. Because the plateau is so remote and thinly settled, the name has stayed close to its literal meaning, with no significant shift in sense between the Tibetan source and its English use.