<P> The Himalayas are inhabited by 52.7 million people and are spread across five countries: Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Pakistan . Some of the world's major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges and the Tsangpo - Brahmaputra, rise in the Himalayas, and their combined drainage basin is home to roughly 600 million people . The Himalayas have a profound effect on the climate of the region, helping to keep the monsoon rains on the Indian plain and limiting rainfall on the Tibetan plateau . The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of the Indian subcontinent; many Himalayan peaks are sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism . </P> <P> The name of the range derives from the Sanskrit Himā - laya (हिमालय, "Abode of Snow"), from himá (हिम, "snow") and ā - laya (आलय, "receptacle, dwelling"). They are now known as the "Himalaya Mountains", usually shortened to the "Himalayas". Formerly, they were described in the singular as the "Himalaya". This was also previously transcribed "Himmaleh", as in Emily Dickinson's poetry and Henry David Thoreau's essays . </P> <P> The mountains are known as the Himālaya in Nepali and Hindi (both written हिमालय), the Himalaya (ཧི ་ མ ་ ལ ་ ཡ ་) or' The Land of Snow' (གངས ་ ཅན ་ ལྗོངས ་) in Tibetan, the Hamaleh Mountain Range (سلسلہ کوہ ہمالیہ) in Urdu and the Ximalaya Mountain Range (t 喜馬拉雅 山脈,> Xǐmǎlāyǎ Shānmài) in Chinese . </P> <P> In the middle of the great curve of the Himalayan mountains lie the 8000m peaks of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna in Nepal, separated by the Kali Gandaki Gorge . The gorge splits the Himalayas into Western and Eastern sections both ecologically and orographically--the pass at the head of the Kali Gandaki, the Kora La is the lowest point on the ridgeline between Everest and K2 . To the east of Annapurna are the 8000 m peaks of Manaslu and across the border in Tibet, Shishapangma . To the south of these lies Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal and the largest city in the Himalayas . East of the Kathmandu Valley lies valley of the Bhote / Sun Kosi river which rises in Tibet and provides the main overland route between Nepal and China--the Araniko Highway / China National Highway 318 . Further east is the Mahalangur Himal with four of the world's six highest mountains, including the highest: Cho Oyu, Everest, Lhotse and Makalu . The Khumbu region, popular for trekking, is found here on the south - western approaches to Everest . The Arun river drains the northern slopes of these mountains, before turning south and flowing through the range to the east of Makalu . </P>

How does himalaya affect the climate of india