High-mountain Asia

According to NASA, the region is the "world's largest reservoir of perennial glaciers and snow outside of the Earth's polar ice sheets",[2] and has been nicknamed the "Third Pole".

Their meltwaters and runoffs form the headwaters of river systems that support the drinking water and food production of nearly 3 billion people, and hydrological and climate changes in the mountains affect "ecosystem services, agriculture, energy and livelihood"[3] for all the surrounding areas.

[3] In a 2020 study, the term High Asia or High Mountain Asia was used metaphorically to categorise Kashmir, Hazara, Nuristan, Laghman, Azad Kashmir, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Gilgit Baltistan, Chitral, Western Tibet, Western Xinjiang, Badakhshan, Gorno Badakhshan, Fergana, Osh and Turkistan Region.

The work further highlighted the role of United States, China, Russia, UK, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Iran and other players involved in The New Great Game over who will dominate High Asia in the 21st century.

the "Roof of the World"), and extends to the surrounding regions as numerous mountain ranges: These mountain range networks contains all 14 peaks above 8,000 m (26,000 ft) and all of the peaks above 7,200 m (23,600 ft), and expand across the mountainous Chinese provinces of Tibet, Xinjiang, Sichuan and Yunnan (including the flat and depressed Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang, which contains China's largest desert, the Taklamakan),[8] northern Myanmar, the Himalayan nations of Nepal and Bhutan as well as north/northwestern Pakistan and northeastern India, and most of the southeastern Central Asian nations of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.