The major deglacial intensification of the southwest monsoon occurred at 11,450 +/- 150 calendar years before present, synchronous with a major climate transition as recorded in Greenland ice. An earlier event of monsoon intensification at 16,000 +/- 150 calendar years before present occurred at the end of Heinrich layer 1 in the Atlantic and parallels the initial rise in global atmospheric methane concentrations and the first abrupt climate changes in the Antarctic; thus, the evolution of the monsoonal and high-latitude climates show teleconnections but hemispheric asymmetries. Superimposed on abrupt events, the monsoonal climate shows high-frequency variability of 1785-, 1450-, and 1150-year oscillations, and abrupt climate change seems to occur when at least two of these oscillations are in phase.