The Mountain Region

The Mountain Region or Parbat abruptly rises into the zone of perpetual snow along the Main Central Thust fault zone. South of this fault system, "hills" do not greatly exceed treeline at about 3,500 metres (11,483 ft). North of it the Himalayas rise as a virtual wall beyond the snowline at 5,000 to 5,500 metres (16,404 to 18,045 ft) to some 90 peaks over 7,000 metres (22,966 ft) and eight exceeding 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) including Mount Everest at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) and Kanchenjunga at 8,598 metres (28,209 ft). Unlike the Mahabharats, the Himalaya are not continuous across Nepal. Instead there are some 20 subranges including the Kanchenjunga massif, Kumbu around Mt. Everest. Langtang north of Kathmandu, Annapurna north of Pokhara and Dhaulagiri further west, then Kanjiroba north of Jumla.
Alpine, often semi-arid valleys—including Humla, Jumla, Dolpo, Mustang, Manang and Khumbu-- cut between himalayan subranges or lie north of them. They are lightly populated by people with Tibetan affinities called Bhotiya or Bhutia including the famous Sherpas in Kumbu valley near Mount Everest. Permanent villages are found as high as 4,500 metres (14,764 ft) with summer encampments even higher. These peoples traditionally grazed yaks, grew cold-tolerant crops such as potatoes, barley and millet, and traded across the mountains, e.g. Tibetan salt for rice from lowlands in Nepal and India. Since the 1950s they have also found work as high altitude porters, guides, cooks and other accessories to tourism and alpinism.
Bhutiya language and culture extend north into Tibet proper, with the international border following the Himalayan crest in eastern Nepal. In central and western Nepal the border mostly follows the watershed between the Ganges and Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra) basins along (about 6,000 metres (19,685 ft)) ranges tens of kilometers north of the highest peaks.