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The 1954 film, "The Snow Creature", was directed by W. Lee Wilder, a director who only made a few films throughout his career and who never earned a place in Hollywood. The film begins somewhere in the Himalayas, where a botanist is leading an expedition to look for plant-life. The search for plants is brought to an abrupt stop when the group discovers a creature that they refer to as a Yeti, which in mythology, is known as an Abominable Snowman. In works of fiction, the vast and mysterious beauty of the Himalayas is often utilized as the home of characters such as the one depicted in the film. That is, large man-like beasts that terrorize those individuals who dare to face the dangers of the Himalayas.
In fact, the Himalaya, which is a Sanskrit word for "abode of snow", has served as a wondrous beauty to mankind for many years. The Himalaya stretches across five nations: Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, and is a source of three of the world’s major river systems. It is also among the youngest mountain ranges on the planet. According to modern theory of plate tectonics, the formation of the Himalayas is a result of continental collision or orogeny along the convergent boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Because of its large size and expanse, the Himalaya has been a natural barrier to the movement of people for tens of thousands of years.
The Himalayan range comprises three parallel ranges, arranged by elevation and geological age. The Flora and Fauna of the Himalayas vary with climate, rainfall, altitude, and soils. Climate ranges from tropical at the base of the mountains to permanent ice and snow at the highest elevations. There are mainly two types of tropical forests that are found in the Himalayas. These are tropical rainforests and tropical deciduous forests. The rainforests are dense, evergreen, gloomy, and similar to the forests of the Amazon basin. The rainforests are found mainly in the Himalayas where there is heavy rainfall.
Deciduous forests are found in regions of slightly lower rainfall. They are common in the lower slopes of the Himalayas and the trees are known to shed their leaves during certain seasons. Deciduous forests tend to be less dense than the rainforests. Forests of teak and sal are common in areas of deciduous vegetation.
The Himalayas have come a long way for individuals since its discovery. Many tourists visit the Himalayas throughout the year, and spend time at the base of the mountain range where there are flower-filled meadows, lush green forests, and rivers that are clear blue. The constant stream of tourists indicates that though there is much more to discover, what we already know is that the Himalayas is a magical place of wonder and beauty that many have a hard time comparing to anything else.
