Climbing Dunes beside a Braided Plateau River

Climbing Dunes beside a Braided Plateau River is an original illustration set in Middle Yarlung Tsangpo Valley, Tibet, China. It lies in the subtropics, where the climate is cold semi-arid steppe.

A broad high-altitude valley holds a silver-blue braided river divided by pale sand bars. Golden dunes rise from the floodplain and climb a dry mountainside, while dark poplar windbreaks shelter compact green barley fields along the settled river terrace.

Why do sand dunes climb the slope beside a braided river and cultivated fields?

The braided Yarlung Tsangpo supplies abundant loose sand through shifting channels and exposed bars. Strong valley winds lift that sediment from the riverbed, drive it across terraces, and pile it against the lower mountain slope as climbing dunes. Irrigation supports barley and planted poplar belts only in narrow protected patches, so braided water, wind-built sand, fields, and windbreak rows coexist within the same high Tibetan valley.

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