Long considered sacred by many Himalayan people, the golden langur was first brought to the attention of the Western world by the naturalist Edward Pritchard Gee in the 1950s.

[4] The earliest record of the golden langur is in an 1838 paper by Robert Boileau Pemberton which states that "Griffith observed these monkeys near Tongso in Central Bhutan.

The first reference to the golden langur in print, as an animal of unidentified taxonomic status, was in a 1919 publication that stated: "Pithecus sp?

"[8][9] In February 1947, in the Forest Rest House visitors' book in Raimona, a few miles south of Jamduar, C. G. Baron reported seeing some langurs whose "whole body and tail is one colour – a light silvery-gold, somewhat like the hair of a blonde."

"[9] However, it wasn't until a few years later that a focused effort to identify the golden langur was mounted by Gee, who traveled back to Jamduar in November 1953.

[9] In August 1954, Gee reported his findings to an expert at the Zoological Society of London, who advised that the golden langur might be a new species.

[10] The suggestion received the support of Dr. Sunder Lal Hora, then Director of ZSI, and later that year six specimens of the golden langur were collected by the survey party.

[9] The following year, Dr. H. Khajuria, a taxonomist who studied the specimens, described the new species naming it Presbystis geei in honour of Gee.

[18] The coat changes color seasonally, from white or cream coloured in the summer to dark golden or chestnut in the winter.

[22] These biogeographical barriers are believed to have led to the radiation of species from the closely related capped langur (Trachypithecus pileatus).

[4] In 1988, two captive groups of Gee's golden langur were released into the wild in Tripura state in north-eastern India, an area outside of their natural range.

[25] For the most part, the langur is confined to high trees where its long tail serves as a balancer when it leaps across branches.

Its diet is herbivorous, consisting of ripe and unripe fruits, mature and young leaves, seeds, buds and flowers.

[32] In 1988, two captive groups of golden langurs were released into two protected areas of the western region of the state of Tripura, India.