Legends abound among locals in the area of the Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra river system, including the dominant belief that the mythical land of Shambhala, or paradise in Tibetan Buddhism, exists somewhere near the India-China border just across northeastern Arunachal Pradesh. Very remote and inaccessible because of very high mountains, steep river valleys and insect-infested thick jungles, it was only in 1998 that a British explorer and Buddhist scholar first managed to complete the last unexplored navigation of the river. Home to some of the earth’s highest peaks, like Gyala Peri ($7,293text{ m}$) and Namcha Barwa ($7,780text{ m}$),…