P-wave residuals recorded at stations in Nepal from events to the northwest and closer than about 20¿ are consistently earlier than those from other directions by about 2.5 s. These early arrivals are assoicated with paths confined to the upper 300 km of the Earth and suggest that cold material occupies the uppermost mantle beneath the Karakorum, northwest, Himalaya, and western Kunlun. Thus, these data suggest that convective downwelling occurs more vigorously in this region than beneath the rest of the Himalaya, Tibet, and their surroundings. ¿American Geophysical Union 1991