The name of the range

The name of the range derives from the Sanskrit Himālaya (हिमालय ‘abode of the snow’), from himá (हिम ‘snow’) and ā-laya (आलय ‘receptacle, dwelling’).[8] They are now known as “the Himalaya Mountains”, usually shortened to “the Himalayas”. Formerly, they were describ

ed in the singular as the Himalaya. This was also previously transcribed as Himmaleh, as in Emily Dickinson’s poetry[9] and Henry David Thoreau’s essays.[10]

The mountains are known as the Himālaya in Nepali and Hindi (both written हिमालय), the Himalaya (ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡ་) or ‘The Land of Snow’ (གངས་ཅན་ལྗོངས་) in Tibetan, the Himāliya Mountain Range (سلسلہ کوہ ہمالیہ) in Urdu, the Himaloy Parvatmala (হিমালয় পর্বতমালা) in Bengali and the Xi

malaya Mountain Range (simplified Chinese: 喜马拉雅山脉; traditional Chinese: 喜馬拉雅山脉; pinyin: Xǐmǎlāyǎ Shānmài) in Chinese.

The name of the range is sometimes also given as Himavan in older writings.[11]