(TibetanReview.net, Aug27’26) – A sudden glacial collapse and avalanche has sent a wall of mud, rocks, and water barrelling down the Bhote Koshi River on Aug 26 morning, killing at least 3 people in the Kyirong Port area in Tibet’s Shigatse City and leaving 558 others – including 260 foreigners – missing, with two local villagers rescued, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency Aug 27. The devastation on the Nepali side has been far worse, with police confirming at least 177 deaths and over 1,400 missing. Infrastructure destruction and damage has been reported on both sides of the border.
In the main disaster-hit area in Nepal of Rasuwa district, severe damage and casualties have affected the Tibetan settlement of Gegyeling, the nearby Shabru Tibetan market and other Tibetans living in other nearby areas, according to the Tibetan-language tibettimes.net Aug 27. Some of them have been reported missing after they were swept away in the flood. Homes of 11 Tibetan families in the settlement, along with homes of other people living nearby, have been carried away. The fate of an elderly settlement resident named Pasang Norbu, along with another Tibetan, was stated to remain unknown.
Also carried away by flood was stated to be the homes of five Tibetan families at a place called Timure located close to the border of Tibet’s county of Kyirong, A Tibetan named Kelsang Dawa and members of another Tibetan family were stated to remain missing after being carried by the roaring flood water while members of three Tibetan families escaped the disaster by running up a nearby hill.
The Shabru Tibetan market was reported to have been swept away by the flood with a Tibetan youth named Karma Gyatso sleeping in a restaurant being carried away and killed by the disaster.
The home of the chairman of the Local Tibetan assembly, Mr Jangchub, was also carried away and no contact could be made with him and his souse, the report said.
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Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Chitwan, and Nawalparasi Eas were stated to have been particularly hit hard on the Nepali side. Hundreds of people, including hundreds of foreign tourists, trekkers, and pilgrims going to or returning from Tibet, have been reported missing.
While the exact cause of the disaster remains to be determined, a Xinhua report said Aug 27 that a mudslide, which occurred on the Nepalese side, struck Gyirong Port in Kyirong County on Aug 26 morning to unleash the disaster. It said the disaster cut off roads leading to the port on the Tibetan side, as well as communications and power supplies. Debris were stated to have accumulated about 3 km upstream of the port.
Over 300 villagers from several villages near the border port struck by the mudslide had been evacuated, said another Xinhua report Aug 27. Search and rescue operation was stated to be on for the large number of missing persons.
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The Dalai Lama on Aug 27 expressed sadness on learning of the devastating floods in the Rasuwa region of Nepal and Kyirong in Tibet, resulting in loss of life and heavy structural damage. “I pray for all those who have lost their lives, and offer my sympathy and heartfelt condolences to the bereaved and to all those affected by this tragedy,” he said in a message posted on his dalailama.com website.
He further said: “Since this region has seen calamities in the past as well, these are certainly symptoms of a deeper underlying cause — whether climate change or other factors. I hope that appropriate follow-up measures will be taken, wherever possible, to help ensure that such disasters do not recur.”
The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile TPiE) also expressed “profound concern over the disaster along the Nepal-Tibet border”, describing it as “a horrific calamity and calling for a thorough investigation into its causes.”
Dolma Tsering Teykhang, Speaker of the TPiE, has emphasised the need to determine whether the disaster was purely natural or if human activity also contributed. “So far, we haven’t received any report. It could be both natural plus man-made. So, if it is man-made, then we have to really go into a deep investigation of what’s happening in Tibet, because Tibet is the place where this natural calamity has happened and the brunt of it, the Nepalese who are just next to Tibet, have to bear it,” thenewsmill.com Aug 27 quoted her as saying.
Likewise, Tempa Gyaltsen, Joint Secretary of the Central Tibetan Administration’s Department of Information and International Relations, has said in that report: “This disaster happening on the border between Tibet and Nepal is a clear warning to everyone in this part of the world, particularly India, Nepal, Pakistan, Tibet-China and other regions, that any sort of mega construction or mega projects in those regions are at risk from earthquakes, landslides or glacier slides because of climate change.”
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Questions are being raised about whether early warnings from China could have helped prevent loss of lives in one of the worst natural disasters to hit Nepal in recent memroy. Voices in Nepal have questioned that even when the border facilities at the Rasuwagadhi-Gyirong crossing and Gyirong port were hit, warnings could have been issued to save lives downstream, said an ndtv.com report Aug 27.
“Nepal has been addressing the legitimate security concerns of our neighbours. However, it must be said with sadness that our northern neighbour has significantly undermined us. By failing to provide early warning of such a massive disaster, we suffered immense loss of human life,” Nepali Journalist with Naya Patrika, a Nepali daily, was reported to have posted on X.
“We have continually faced crises originating from their territory, while we continue to address all their concerns, necessary or unnecessary. Why must Nepal alone pay the price of one-sided love?” he has added.
“I was expecting that because of the advanced satellite systems and technology they could have at least noticed an image or something like that. And they could have relayed the information to the Nepali side, but they could not notice that also,” Dr Govind Raj Pokharel, who led Nepal’s reconstruction effort after Nepal earthquake of 2015, has told ndtv.
China has rejected these assertions, based on Nepal’s allegation that the collapse of a “geological disaster dam” on the Chinese side triggered the massive devastation in Nepal.
The Chinese embassy in Nepal called the claim “fake news”, including the allegation that China failed to issue an early warning to the Nepali side, resulting in significant casualties, noted the timesofindia.com Aug 27.
Countering Nepal’s statement, the embassy has sought to present the “truth” on Facebook, saying: “An earthquake or earthquake-like glacier collapse occurred on the Nepali side on the morning of August 26, triggering huge mudslides, which caused significant casualties and left people missing on both the Nepali and Chinese sides of the Gyirong-Rasuwagadhi border region.”
Contrary to China’s claims, Nepal’s disaster authority (NDRRMA) has said a chunk of snow and rock broke off near the glacier zone on the Nepal-Tibet border, about 20km northeast of the Rasuwagadhi border crossing.
That avalanche either fell into a glacial lake or blocked the river channel, and the resulting surge, carrying glacial ice, meltwater and debris — “glacier-inclusive flood” — swept down the Lhende Khola into the Bhote Koshi river, the ndtv.com report cited NDRRMA as saying.
Whatever may be the case, a study to determine the exact cause of the disaster, which unleashed an avalanche of ice, rock, and earth, likely a result of glacial lake outburst, triggering massive flash floods that tore through parts of Nepal is expected to take a long time.