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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:20,000 The Himalayas appear like a frozen fortress, 2 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:24,240 giving nothing, 3 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:25,760 not even enough air. 4 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,720 Yet there are animals here... 5 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:40,800 ..miraculous and extraordinary, 6 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:45,080 nurtured by the mountains. 7 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:52,520 For people, too, the mountains shape their world. 8 00:00:56,760 --> 00:01:01,680 The animals of the Himalayas teach us about the beauty and fragility of life, 9 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:04,600 and the power of the most inhospitable mountains on Earth. 10 00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:18,760 The highest mountain range in the world forms 11 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,640 a two thousand-mile scar across Asia, 12 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:25,120 separating India from the Tibetan Plateau. 13 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:33,200 Our journey is from west to east, through the seasons. 14 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:38,400 We start in Pakistan in winter. 15 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:52,640 The Karakoram Range, at the western end of the Himalayas, is a world of 16 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:58,760 golden eagles, snow leopards, markhors, bears, jackals, and wolves. 17 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:16,680 The snow leopard stalks markhors, the wild mountain goats, using the falling snow as cover. 18 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:42,200 At this altitude, and in winter, nothing is easy. 19 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:47,040 Yet despite the cold and the thin air, there is more life within the Himalayas 20 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:49,680 than any other mountain range on Earth. 21 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:01,840 The snow leopard has a fully grown cub. 22 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:07,200 Families will stay together longer than any other cat. 23 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:09,520 It's tough up here to make it alone. 24 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:18,680 The difficulties of mountain life encourage companionship. 25 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:23,360 The wolves work together, searching for frozen bodies under the snow. 26 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:32,600 Himalayan wolves are from an old bloodline, relics of an early ancestor. 27 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:38,480 Maybe this was the wolf's first home. 28 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:45,200 The bonds within the pack, and the mountain toughness, perhaps, helped them to spread over half the world. 29 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:55,520 Domestic dogs came from Asian wolves, so perhaps they, too, are a gift from the Himalayas. 30 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:04,880 Is our companion on the hearthrug with us a consequence of an ancient lesson learnt in these mountains? 31 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:19,920 It's winter, and the higher villages and farms are deserted. 32 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:25,000 Life follows the seasons up and down the mountains. 33 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:39,560 Until recently, our presence hardly registered at all on the biggest scar on the planet's surface. 34 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:47,920 These mountains arose some 40 million years ago, when India, 35 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:51,440 pushing from the south, hit the rest of Asia. 36 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:58,640 The land had nowhere to go but up, and folds reached over five miles high. 37 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:07,360 The Himalayas are a massive crumple zone, reaching out of the air, towards space. 38 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:17,960 In winter, most life retreats to below the snowline. 39 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:25,000 They're relics of an ancient ancestor. 40 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:29,800 A snow leopard's nearest relatives could be lions, or even jaguars. 41 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:37,400 The family follow the antics of the markhors. 42 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:48,800 The markhors breed in winter. Males try to throw their rivals off cliffs. 43 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:59,200 As well as fighting, the dominant buck follows the girls around, with his tongue hanging out. 44 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:23,920 It's a distracting time for the does. 45 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:25,480 Perfect for the snow leopard. 46 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:10,880 The markhor disappears around the corner. 47 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:15,680 The snow leopard seems more puzzled than anything else. 48 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:41,360 If there were one place on Earth where we can see the power of raw nature, 49 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:47,800 and the fragility of life, it must be here. 50 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:31,440 Later, at night, the snow leopard revisits the place where the markhor leaped for freedom. 51 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:36,040 It's as if the mountains have taken back her prize, 52 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:37,840 perhaps saved the markhor's life, 53 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:42,320 and she needs to understand what happened. 54 00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:17,840 In the bleak landscape we find curiosity, caring families, companionship, and hope. 55 00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:40,560 The snow leopards and markhors will disappear higher into the mountains. 56 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:49,400 We, too, must look beyond the valleys to understand the extraordinary forces that rule the Himalayas. 57 00:09:54,520 --> 00:10:01,680 This is the largest deposit of accumulated ice and compacted snow outside the poles. 58 00:10:01,680 --> 00:10:09,000 Thousands of cubic miles of ice slide very slowly down the mountains, as glaciers. 59 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:22,840 The glaciers feed many of the greatest rivers in Asia. 60 00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:29,400 Tiny changes up here can affect parts of India and China, thousands of miles away. 61 00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:39,040 We are moving east, along Karakoram Range, over the border between Pakistan and India. 62 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:45,000 These peaks were carved during ice ages. 63 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:48,400 It's about time for another ice age, but instead, 64 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:53,040 the Himalayas are melting faster than seems possible naturally. 65 00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:57,680 Nature appears disturbed, shifting angrily, 66 00:10:57,680 --> 00:11:00,880 as though a delicate balance was being lost. 67 00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:16,800 As the glaciers descend and melt, water pours into crevasses, and carves tunnels inside the ice. 68 00:11:28,560 --> 00:11:31,160 We are now in India, at Gaumukh, 69 00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:33,240 "the cow's mouth", 70 00:11:33,240 --> 00:11:36,560 one of the several holy sources of the Ganges. 71 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:41,680 Pilgrims take a ritual bath in its freezing milky waters. 72 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:51,440 The river, "Mother Ganges", is revered as a goddess, influencing millions of lives. 73 00:11:55,200 --> 00:12:02,880 During March and April, temples shed their winter isolation, and villagers and farmers return. 74 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:09,800 Images of animals are everywhere, emerging from an isolated frozen winter, into spring. 75 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:21,720 The mountains themselves are sacred. 76 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:27,560 There's a legend of a holy peak, a perfect four-sided pyramid. 77 00:12:27,560 --> 00:12:32,120 From each face, according to the stories, a great river flows. 78 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:37,280 Each river carries life to the four corners of the Earth. 79 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:41,480 The mythical mountain is the axis mundi, the centre of the world. 80 00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:50,440 As we journey east along the Himalayas, we find a mountain to match the myth. 81 00:12:53,840 --> 00:13:00,040 Its meltwater flows to the Indus in Pakistan, and south into the Ganges. 82 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:03,960 Streams form the Yarlung and head to Bangladesh. 83 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:09,400 Three of Asia's greatest rivers can trace their source to this one mountain. 84 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:16,320 It's Mount Kailash, which means "crystal mountain". 85 00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:22,000 Buddhists, Hindus and Jains make pilgrimages here. 86 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:28,040 Priests, monks, musicians and holy men all compete in a riot of religious cultures. 87 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:31,560 HORNS BLARE 88 00:13:31,560 --> 00:13:36,320 Giant prayer poles are raised, also reaching up to heaven. 89 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:42,800 Paper prayers called wind horses flutter up towards the peak, 90 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:46,680 where the gods of different faiths are believed to reside. 91 00:13:46,680 --> 00:13:49,280 The summit is so sacred, it has never been climbed. 92 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:05,520 Our path continues east, from the Karakorams in Pakistan, into India and towards Nepal. 93 00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:12,360 Spring is climbing the mountain, and upland forests are returning to life. 94 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:43,720 It's a surprise to find monkey mountaineers, but the Himalayas have many. 95 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:50,800 In April, flowers and buds feed langur monkeys. 96 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:56,120 They winter in the valleys, and follow the snowline up the mountains in spring. 97 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:01,800 There is something about mountain life, 98 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:08,080 the hardship, perhaps, the fragility, that actually changes the character of the animals that live here. 99 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:11,920 Himalayan langurs are distinct from their lowland cousins. 100 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:15,560 Up here is a more friendly society. 101 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:19,840 Further down the mountain, the males fight for the control of a harem. 102 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:23,200 But here, they all live together in one group. 103 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:38,440 Warm clouds work their way up alpine valleys. 104 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:46,160 The snow leopards go deeper into the mountains, impossible to follow. 105 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:51,360 The Himalayas are still largely inaccessible and unexplored. 106 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:06,240 By May, bees have come out of hibernation, or joined others coming up from the valleys below. 107 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:13,000 Giant cliff bees build three-foot combs that are a rippling wall of bodies. 108 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:24,560 Waving their abdomens in unison is a defensive warning to keep clear. 109 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:38,560 The bees' efforts are in vain. 110 00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:42,760 Human honey-hunters scale the cliffs. 111 00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:51,080 The bees are the biggest in the world and amongst the most dangerous. 112 00:16:54,240 --> 00:17:02,200 They cut out the honey storage cells with 15-foot poles, into a relay of baskets. 113 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:09,920 Even the best protective clothes, and a screen of smoke, is not enough, 114 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:16,960 and the honey-hunter retreats to savour perhaps the most delicious and dangerous honey in the world. 115 00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:26,240 People have searched for magical ingredients here for thousands of years, and discovered 116 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,560 a powerful human aphrodisiac. 117 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:36,160 A little solitary deer produces a musky resin from a small gland on its stomach. 118 00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:42,800 The musk deer has influenced love and fashion across the world. 119 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:47,240 The most famous perfumes are based on his scent. 120 00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:52,280 From Cleopatra onwards, kings and queens wooed with musk. 121 00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:58,840 Muslims maintain it is the smell of heaven, and they added it to the mortar of the mosques, 122 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:01,760 so that the temples smelt of paradise. 123 00:18:04,080 --> 00:18:06,920 Affecting religion and history, 124 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:12,320 or giving us Chanel and Dior, is not the musk deer's intention. 125 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:16,640 All he wants is to be noticed by a female musk deer. 126 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,960 While we may want to smell like Himalayan animals, 127 00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,800 wanting to look like them is rarer, but it does happen. 128 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:33,880 The monal pheasant, high above India and Pakistan, is all flash, all show. 129 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:37,000 Males compete in a dance of crests and colours. 130 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:05,120 Curiously, in the shadow of the mountains, the guards on the India and Pakistan border 131 00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:07,840 do an irresistibly similar dance. 132 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:42,200 The crest, even the posturing walk, perhaps, echo the bird display, 133 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:48,760 but the contest of thumbs seems more like the markhor stag, all horns and tongues. 134 00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:55,520 India and Pakistan are feuding neighbours. 135 00:19:55,520 --> 00:19:59,840 How much better if all conflicts could be fought out in this way? 136 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:11,600 Below mountain borders, following glacial meltwater in streams and rivers, 137 00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:14,360 is a watery plain, the Ganges basin. 138 00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:17,960 Here, cranes have their own dances. 139 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:24,120 This is the lowest we go. From here, we will return to the highest peaks. 140 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:34,720 Many birds are hemmed in by the Himalayas, like these sarus cranes. 141 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:39,080 But to bar-headed geese, the mountains are no obstacle. 142 00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:52,520 From the base of the Himalayas in India, we head to Nepal and Bhutan, 143 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:55,080 mountain kingdoms on the top of the world. 144 00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:17,200 The Himalayas are made of range upon range of mountains, building height. 145 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:20,080 The air becomes dangerously thin. 146 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:28,240 Bar-headed geese are the highest flying birds in the world. 147 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:31,560 The higher they go, the faster the jet-stream. 148 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:37,360 A 100 mile-an-hour tailwind catapults them over the Himalayas. 149 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:50,880 Bar-headed geese fly higher than Everest. 150 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,440 Their blood is different, with special haemoglobin, 151 00:21:55,440 --> 00:22:00,880 and they can breathe faster and deeper, many gulps for each wing beat. 152 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:08,800 They suffer severe hypoxia, way beyond any human athlete, pushing the boundaries of pain. 153 00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:30,000 Bar-headed geese are not alone. 154 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:36,880 Some cranes, less well adapted, gawky compared to the geese, attempt the journey. 155 00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:43,280 Demoiselle cranes find ways through high mountain passes, mothers leading their young. 156 00:22:54,320 --> 00:23:00,320 The cranes use rising currents of air to gain height, to battle over ridges, 157 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:04,320 then descend into valleys to recover. 158 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:11,680 There, waiting for them, are golden eagles. 159 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,880 The eagles try to separate young cranes from the flock. 160 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:28,080 The predators hunt cooperatively, like so many others here. 161 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:44,440 The young crane escapes one, and is caught by another. 162 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,840 There is nothing the rest of the flock can do. 163 00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:13,760 The demoiselle cranes battle on, but ahead are the largest obstacles in the world. 164 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:15,920 And the biggest of all, Everest. 165 00:24:25,120 --> 00:24:29,080 One animal has learnt to survive, briefly, at the top. 166 00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:34,280 We don't need to conquer these mountains, 167 00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:38,800 there's no breeding site to get to, and no adaptation to help us. 168 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:41,480 Yet every year, hundreds of people push their physiology 169 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:46,640 for medical research, or more often, for themselves. 170 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,400 The top is called the "death zone", 171 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:19,560 a combination of the best view in the world 172 00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,920 and being in no state to enjoy it. 173 00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:31,200 Winds average hurricane force, temperatures 50 below zero, 174 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:35,680 and a calm day can quickly change. 175 00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:55,280 Over 200 people have died here, many abandoned on the mountain. 176 00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:05,000 About 10% of climbers attempting the summit lose their lives, and many more are injured. 177 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:17,480 In this harsh world of rock, ice and courage, lives a little spider. 178 00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,960 Its Latin name means "standing above everything", 179 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:27,640 and it's been found at 22,000 feet. 180 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,400 It's supposedly the highest living animal in the world. 181 00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,600 But it can't be the only one up here, 182 00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,320 since spiders need other insects to feed on. 183 00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:48,480 Sure enough, tiny flies and springtails also manage at amazing altitudes. 184 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:51,440 But it's got another trick. 185 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:52,800 It's a jumping spider. 186 00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:01,680 Like all good mountaineers, it will secure a line. 187 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:10,880 Springtails are primitive insects that feed on anything 188 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:12,920 blown up from lower altitudes. 189 00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:18,480 This community of plants and animals depend on airborne sustenance. 190 00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:20,240 Hence the name 191 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,400 an Aeolian Biome, 192 00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,120 life brought on the wind. 193 00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,560 Very occasionally, snow leopards are seen at high altitudes, 194 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:47,280 following goats, or maybe scavenging our rubbish ever higher. 195 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:52,360 Wolves, too, are being seen up here, 196 00:27:52,360 --> 00:27:56,240 in this case filmed close to Everest base camp. 197 00:27:56,240 --> 00:28:00,640 It's not clear if climate change is opening up new areas for them 198 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:02,920 or if there's some other reason. 199 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:09,600 Scientists say it's warming and melting here 200 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:13,360 faster than anywhere else outside the poles. 201 00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:30,120 Beyond Nepal and Bhutan, following the cranes and geese over the Himalayas, instead of finding 202 00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:35,240 lush plains at sea level, we discover a high, cold, dry plateau, 203 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:38,560 hardly lower than the peaks themselves. 204 00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:40,360 It is Tibet. 205 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:53,560 Glacial rivers thread through a desiccated landscape the size of France, 206 00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:57,320 but higher than anything in the Alps or the Rockies. 207 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:07,240 The Himalayan peaks are just the jagged edge, the ramparts of a wall 208 00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:10,040 with the Tibetan Plateau hidden behind. 209 00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:25,720 The animals cope with extreme altitude, thin air and a tough life. 210 00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:34,440 The snow leopards look the same, but there are also new characters. 211 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:43,240 This is a brown bear, a grizzly in all but name and tufted ears. 212 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:47,680 He's rare, timid and hardly ever filmed. 213 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:55,480 The Tibetan fox hunts a rodent called a pika. 214 00:29:55,480 --> 00:30:00,240 Pikas live in dens, like ground squirrels or rabbits, and eat the tough grass. 215 00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:04,600 Pikas are the staple food of any predator. 216 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,520 He's the most wonderful-looking fox. 217 00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:18,040 Square-jawed, eyes of cunning, and a twisted, knowing smile. 218 00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:26,040 The fox and the bear go around as a team. 219 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:30,480 More high altitude cooperation, perhaps, or maybe the wily fox 220 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:37,760 just follows the bear around, hoping to nab a pika from under the bear's nose. 221 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:41,880 It's mid-summer now, but the ground is usually frozen, 222 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,920 and only the bear has the strength to dig out the pikas. 223 00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:59,280 If the bear is digging up one end of a burrow, 224 00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:05,080 the fox is ready for the pikas to emerge at the other end in a panic. 225 00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:08,360 PIKAS CALL 226 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:41,120 The bear missed out. The fox eats some and buries the rest. 227 00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:44,200 The deep permafrost will help keep it fresh. 228 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:58,120 The Tibetan Plateau is so high that despite being the same latitude 229 00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:02,480 as North Africa, even in late spring, the temperature is icy. 230 00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:10,320 At 15,000 feet live chiru, Tibetan antelopes. 231 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:16,560 The chiru puff like steam engines in the cold, thin air. 232 00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:28,560 A male guards his harem, breathing clouds of misty condensation. 233 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:40,200 There are other males eyeing up his females. 234 00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:52,320 A neighbour might come charging in to kidnap one for his own. 235 00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:32,560 In these arctic conditions it's very surprising to find... 236 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:34,360 a small snake. 237 00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:46,040 In places, hot springs are a sign of volcanic activity below. 238 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:48,040 The snake survived its home being pushed 239 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:53,160 almost three miles straight up, by holding out in this natural sauna. 240 00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:00,960 The hot spring snake is a lost relic. 241 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:04,600 Their nearest cousins are across the world in America. 242 00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:10,120 The streams flow into lakes, 243 00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:16,040 now home to the bar-headed geese after their epic journey over the Himalayas. 244 00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:33,160 One of the prettiest birds chooses the roof of the world to have up to ten beautiful goslings. 245 00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:41,320 The goslings have to feed themselves right from the start. 246 00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,960 Bar-headed geese always nest by water, for food, 247 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:50,880 but also to escape the hardy Tibetan wolf. 248 00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:05,320 HORNS PLAYING 249 00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:31,520 Novice monks are practising their Tibetan horns. 250 00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:38,040 Buddhism was born on the other side of the Himalayas, overlooking India, 251 00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:42,640 but its mountain philosophy soon spread to Tibet. 252 00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:48,200 A love of nature and animals is one of its teachings. 253 00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:54,840 Cranes are symbols of a long life and a faithful partnership. 254 00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:57,040 CRANES CALL 255 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:02,320 Buddhists believe in reincarnation 256 00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:06,680 and that every animal has a spirit that one day will become a person 257 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:09,320 and that every person has lived as an animal. 258 00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:11,760 So wildlife is looked after carefully, 259 00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:13,680 and, like this crane with a wounded wing, 260 00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:17,720 fed and nursed back to health. 261 00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:27,560 It's another example of how the Himalayas affect people and animals alike 262 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:31,680 and increase sensitivity and co-operation. 263 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:50,120 For those who live in the shadow of the Himalayas, a little can be given back 264 00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:54,360 in the most extraordinary and extreme way possible. 265 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:03,480 A sky burial is the ultimate homage to the mountain. 266 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:19,560 After you die, you are taken up a revered peak and left to feed the vultures. 267 00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:28,200 Buddhists believe that all life is connected, 268 00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:32,960 each animal depends on another, even BECOMES another. 269 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:38,560 It's an idea born in these mountains 270 00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:43,760 from an understanding of the power of nature and the complexity of life. 271 00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:56,360 The Buddhists look to the mountains particularly for reliable water in calm streams. 272 00:37:56,360 --> 00:38:01,120 But flowing east are massive and changeable rivers - 273 00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:04,760 the lifeblood of a billion people. 274 00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:07,120 The Yangtze, the Yellow River, 275 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:13,560 the Yarlung and the Mekong are all are born here on the Tibetan Plateau. 276 00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:17,880 To the north runs the Yellow River, so-called because of the huge amount 277 00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:20,600 of glacial soil it brings to China. 278 00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:26,840 They call the Yellow River the mother of Chinese civilization. 279 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,560 It has another name too - China's Sorrow. 280 00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:35,200 The floods have killed millions of people down the generations. 281 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:44,720 As the climate changes, the river will change and China's Sorrow may take on a new meaning. 282 00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:50,640 Thousands of dams battle 283 00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:54,760 to harness and control the gifts of the Himalayas for ourselves. 284 00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:09,080 Another of Tibet's massive rivers continues our journey east. 285 00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:14,160 Then it turns south and cuts straight through the Himalayas. 286 00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:21,120 The Yarlung Brahmaputra, from Mount Kailash, and the Nujiang, 287 00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:28,400 the Yangtze and the giant Mekong all slice through the mountains, creating the most extraordinary place yet. 288 00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:40,920 Some of the gorges are double the depth of the Grand Canyon - the rivers, the wildest in the world. 289 00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:48,440 It makes getting around difficult, and tests the ingenuity of the Yunnan people. 290 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:05,800 Cable crossings of rattan rope had been in use for hundreds of years 291 00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:09,040 before steel was introduced. 292 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:11,760 This is the main route to market. 293 00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:39,600 Getting around may be harder, but these deep fissures draw warm wet air in from the tropics. 294 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:45,520 The valleys act like the pipes of a central heating system and create tropical paradises 295 00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:50,480 high in the mountains, like the mythical Shangri-La. 296 00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:05,440 To the Chinese particularly, this is heaven, hidden beyond the clouds. 297 00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:18,560 Tropical monkeys like bear macaques live on rainforest fruit at 8,000 feet. 298 00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:26,520 Each Garden of Eden has unique animals and plants, 299 00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:31,360 walled in by mountains, pockets of exceptional biodiversity. 300 00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:41,520 The mountain chains running into China are a sanctuary from the plains below. 301 00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:46,360 Elephants and leopards are fleeing from farmers and loggers. 302 00:41:56,520 --> 00:42:01,480 These high tropical forests are a miraculous paradise. 303 00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:05,480 Sunbirds drink nectar from epiphytes, 304 00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,680 musk deer provide the fragrance of heaven. 305 00:42:08,680 --> 00:42:14,080 While in a private corner is another love story. 306 00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:20,120 A pheasant plays peek-a-boo with a prospective mate. 307 00:42:28,720 --> 00:42:32,560 The Temminck's tragopan hopes his bright wattle 308 00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:37,520 and dance will show he'll be a worthwhile husband. 309 00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:46,720 She seems less than convinced, and moves away. 310 00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:52,160 He follows, displaying on the move, ever hopeful. 311 00:42:55,080 --> 00:43:01,320 But by midsummer, it's too late, and he tucks his wattle away for another year. 312 00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:15,880 Above the warmer valleys, another world... 313 00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:20,720 ..steep woods filled with lichen. 314 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:36,640 The Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys feed almost entirely on the lichen, 315 00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:40,240 and so are trapped at the high altitude that it grows. 316 00:43:40,240 --> 00:43:46,920 At 14,000 feet, they are the highest primates in the world, except for a few of us. 317 00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:57,440 Large troops are formed of many families, each with a Buddha-like male and several wives. 318 00:43:57,440 --> 00:44:00,600 Last year's young help with the babies. 319 00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:12,680 They are curious looking, some like little elves 320 00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:16,560 and some like plastic surgery gone too far. 321 00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:30,440 At the height of summer, a strange cooling brings snow to the mountains. 322 00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:45,600 The snub-nosed monkeys feel the change in the weather. 323 00:45:13,720 --> 00:45:19,520 Each July, the snow comes in and the monkeys shiver. 324 00:45:19,520 --> 00:45:22,040 The monsoon has begun. 325 00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:36,480 The cold mountains draw tropical air from the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles away. 326 00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:43,160 Clouds pile up, and from July to September deliver most of the annual snow and rain. 327 00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:51,880 Without the Himalayas driving the monsoon, Southern Asia would be a desert. 328 00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:03,280 Soil and mud, ground up by glaciers, 329 00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:05,480 pour off the mountains. 330 00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:15,960 The monsoon can bring life 331 00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:19,600 or destruction and sorrow. 332 00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:28,320 Life depends on the mountains, the character of which is unpredictable. 333 00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:33,600 It's not just a religious belief, but a scientific fact as well. 334 00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:51,040 In places, we shape the mountain to our will to provide more food. 335 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:56,280 Rice paddies are some of the oldest human structures on Earth. 336 00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:36,160 The cultures that understand the Himalayas say we must give something back. 337 00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:40,800 They say all life is connected, 338 00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:43,080 and each animal depends on another, 339 00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:45,880 even BECOMES another. 340 00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:58,000 It is as if the mountains are trying to teach us something else, too, 341 00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:04,080 a very old lesson about the power of nature 342 00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:07,080 and the fragility of our lives. 343 00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:33,200 It's not just the animals that makes the Himalayas so extraordinary. 344 00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:35,960 It's also the plants. 345 00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:44,000 In fact, the floral wealth of this region has had an enormous impact on the lives of all of us. 346 00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:50,360 It all began in the early 19th century, 347 00:48:50,360 --> 00:48:56,880 when a new wave of adventurers risked their lives to collect exotic plants from across the world. 348 00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:04,120 The Himalayas was one of the most promising and tempting regions of all. 349 00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:08,560 This rugged land was still largely unknown to the outside world. 350 00:49:12,840 --> 00:49:16,440 Here, surely, there were new plant species to be found. 351 00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:25,560 That quest led to a special connection with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. 352 00:49:25,560 --> 00:49:27,800 Well, in the 19th century in particular, 353 00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:31,040 there was a lot of collecting of plants throughout the world, 354 00:49:31,040 --> 00:49:35,400 particularly well-to-do people liked to build up collections of specimens 355 00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:39,000 just as they liked to collect stuffed animals and this type of thing. 356 00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:43,800 Joseph Dalton Hooker was one such well-to-do explorer 357 00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:48,160 and lucky for him, his father was Director of Kew. 358 00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:52,680 As Western high society became gripped by a gardening craze, 359 00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:58,120 William Hooker sent his son in search of new plants. 360 00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:04,120 In 1847, Joseph set off on a three-year expedition into the Himalayas. 361 00:50:06,880 --> 00:50:11,200 Single-minded and determined, he endured great hardships. 362 00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:16,240 He suffered with altitude sickness, 363 00:50:16,240 --> 00:50:18,920 his journey was sabotaged by local people, 364 00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:20,480 he was even imprisoned. 365 00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:27,520 Nevertheless, he walked for eight hours a day, 366 00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:31,120 collecting plants and documenting every detail of his travels. 367 00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:37,320 He was the first European to collect in the region 368 00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:45,240 and his discoveries made him one of the greatest botanists of the 19th century, a key scientist of his age. 369 00:50:45,240 --> 00:50:50,480 He returned from the Himalayas with a wealth of new flowers, 370 00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:53,320 including 28 new species of rhododendron. 371 00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:57,880 We've got some examples here of specimens that were collected by Hooker. 372 00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:03,800 One example here is Rhododendron arborium, which in fact is the national flower of Nepal. 373 00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:07,760 But there are a large number of these specimens collected by Hooker 374 00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:13,000 of this species from Nepal, and we do have specimens that have got 375 00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:19,040 Hooker's name on them, so here we've got a specimen that was collected in 1848. 376 00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:25,520 Simply by bringing these new species back, it would have had a great impact, because lots of these things 377 00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:30,960 would never have been seen before, so a lot of new things introduced into cultivation. 378 00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:35,800 So these plants would have had the real sort of wow factor for gardeners at the time. 379 00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:41,880 Gardeners across the nation competed for the boldest and brightest specimens, 380 00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:47,480 bringing a little bit of the Himalayas into everyone's garden. 381 00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:53,200 In fact, a quarter of the plants in our gardens today came originally from the Himalayas... 382 00:51:53,200 --> 00:51:56,120 from azaleas to euphorbias, 383 00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:58,920 gentians to irises... 384 00:51:58,920 --> 00:52:01,720 and peonies to primulas. 385 00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:09,360 But Joseph Hooker also recognised the value of plants to science and medicine. 386 00:52:09,360 --> 00:52:15,640 Today, the Herbarium makes Kew one of the most important botanical institutions in the world. 387 00:52:15,640 --> 00:52:20,120 It's a vast database housing over seven million specimens 388 00:52:20,120 --> 00:52:23,280 and representing 98% of the world's plant species. 389 00:52:23,280 --> 00:52:28,800 Succeeding his father as Director, Joseph also opened the Jodrell Laboratory 390 00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:33,920 and firmly established Kew as a scientific institution. 391 00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:39,440 This laboratory does a lot of work 392 00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:41,520 on the biological activity of plants. 393 00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:44,960 We have an emphasis on looking for medicinal uses of plants, 394 00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:47,160 and that could be what we term 395 00:52:47,160 --> 00:52:52,280 over-the-counter medicines - things like coughs and colds - but also looking for drugs 396 00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:56,840 that could be used to treat things like Alzheimer's, TB and cancer. 397 00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:03,880 The Himalayan region is estimated to have about 398 00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:07,880 between 18,000 and maybe 20,000, 21,000 different species of plants, 399 00:53:07,880 --> 00:53:11,080 and of those, there's documentary evidence 400 00:53:11,080 --> 00:53:14,840 on uses of about 2,000 of those for medicinal uses. 401 00:53:16,760 --> 00:53:23,800 So one of the things that we are doing at Kew is partly capturing the traditional uses, 402 00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:31,280 but also looking at the traits that plants have in different areas that they have evolved 403 00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:39,120 to protect themselves, that can help us design drugs for the future. 404 00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:41,960 People living in the remote valleys of the Himalayas 405 00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:46,560 have always relied on plants for their medical remedies, but so do we. 406 00:53:46,560 --> 00:53:52,760 Around a quarter of all our pharmaceuticals contain substances derived from plants. 407 00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:58,320 Plants that we may take for granted in our gardens could be miniature medicine chests. 408 00:53:58,320 --> 00:54:04,280 Some of the plants that we've been working on, some of them are quite famous to the areas, 409 00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:08,840 because they're not only medicinal plants, but they're in the culture of the people, 410 00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:11,360 and that would be rhododendrons. 411 00:54:11,360 --> 00:54:17,000 Every bit of the rhododendron plant has a traditional use, 412 00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:24,040 from the flowers to the leaves, to the bark, to the roots is used. 413 00:54:24,040 --> 00:54:27,080 Now, the other plant is peony. 414 00:54:27,080 --> 00:54:33,200 Now, we know it for its beautiful flowers, but within the Himalayas 415 00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:37,920 it's often the root bark that is used as a medicine, and I've had 416 00:54:37,920 --> 00:54:45,440 quite a few trips actually looking for samples of this because it is a plant that has been over-exploited. 417 00:54:47,480 --> 00:54:55,480 But in the Himalayas there is a real issue with the continuing growth and over-exploitation by man. 418 00:54:58,520 --> 00:55:02,400 And therefore we could be losing things that we haven't yet studied. 419 00:55:02,400 --> 00:55:08,520 At the start of the 19th century, almost nothing was known about Himalayan plants. 420 00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:14,400 Now, we are methodically examining them all to see how they might be of use to us. 421 00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:17,520 As so few people live up here, it was once thought 422 00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:22,040 that the high altitude plants were safe from exploitation. 423 00:55:22,040 --> 00:55:26,040 But today, there is a much greater threat. 424 00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:35,680 As the climate warms, glaciers are receding and the land no longer suits the plants that evolved here. 425 00:55:35,680 --> 00:55:39,160 But there is nowhere else for them to grow. 426 00:55:42,200 --> 00:55:46,960 With climatic changes threatening thousands of plant species worldwide, 427 00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:52,240 Kew has embarked on the most ambitious of all plant conservation projects. 428 00:55:52,240 --> 00:55:54,920 The Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place, 429 00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:59,520 Kew's base in West Sussex, holds more than a million seeds. 430 00:55:59,520 --> 00:56:01,000 We know, as seed bank people, 431 00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:04,400 that you don't have to lose plants, you don't have to lose them. 432 00:56:04,400 --> 00:56:05,640 We can use seed banks 433 00:56:05,640 --> 00:56:08,000 to make sure that these plants don't go extinct. 434 00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:15,160 Here, seeds arrive from plant-hunters working all around the world, to be catalogued and bar-coded. 435 00:56:17,400 --> 00:56:21,280 Each batch is carefully sifted and cleaned. 436 00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:27,880 Then they are X-rayed to ensure that there's no contamination by insects that might harm them. 437 00:56:29,320 --> 00:56:34,640 Only after everything has been checked are they banked for the future. 438 00:56:34,640 --> 00:56:40,200 In an underground vault, they are kept dormant at minus 20 degrees. 439 00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:44,600 Essentially what seeds are, are they're little time capsules. 440 00:56:44,600 --> 00:56:49,840 Plants can survive for centuries using their seed 441 00:56:49,840 --> 00:56:53,360 and we accentuate that ability 442 00:56:53,360 --> 00:56:57,760 and we've learnt a lot about seeds such that we can actually spin that process out. 443 00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:01,080 We know that we can keep seeds alive for 1,000 years. 444 00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:07,920 The Millennium Seed Bank has already ensured that 54,000 species of plants 445 00:57:07,920 --> 00:57:11,200 are safe from extinction. 446 00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:14,400 'The seed bank is just the first step, because we have to make sure 447 00:57:14,400 --> 00:57:16,440 'that we can turn them back into plants. 448 00:57:16,440 --> 00:57:20,560 'There's no good having 1.6 billion seeds sitting in a fridge downstairs,' 449 00:57:20,560 --> 00:57:25,840 but it's our first stepping stone to them turning those species back into real plants. 450 00:57:25,840 --> 00:57:29,760 Each seed is valuable. 451 00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:33,880 As plants continue to provide food, fresh air, habitat stability, 452 00:57:33,880 --> 00:57:36,080 even medicines, 453 00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:39,160 we know we need them for our future. 454 00:57:39,160 --> 00:57:44,360 Their time capsules may even hold the key to problems that we have yet to face. 455 00:57:54,880 --> 00:57:57,920 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 456 00:57:57,920 --> 00:58:00,960 E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk 42443

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