From HIMAL, Volume 8, Issue 3 (MAY/JUN 1995) This issue of Himal has a more than our usual variety of articles, traversing as we do the Far Eastern Himalaya to Jumla, the Nepal tarai, and Chang Thang. The subjects covered range from the unraveling sociopolitical base of the Indian Northeast, to feudal roadblocks in the …
From HIMAL, Volume 8, Issue 2 (MAR/APR 1995) A meeting of mountain representatives from far corners of the globe ended a hollow exercise. Was this the way to lobby for the world’s highlands? In the last week of February, some 120 academics, bureaucrats and a sprinkling of activists gathered at the International Potato Center in …
From HIMAL, Volume 8, Issue 2 (MAR/APR 1995) On 18 December, a 15-year-old male rhinoceros from the eastern precincts of the Royal Chitwan National Park forded the Rapti river to raid the fields of Pyaredhap village. It was the season for wheat, mustard and chili pepper (khursani), which the rhinos relish. In trying to …
From HIMAL, Volume 7, Issue 4 (JUL/AUG 1994) Bhutan today teeters on the edge of geopolitical ruin. It could tip over, or it could recover in time. It is, basically, up to King Jigme Singye Wangchuk. In 1990, the rulers of Bhutan, a coterie of inter-related Ngalong elites from the western districts, initiated a successful …
From HIMAL, Volume 7, Issue 4 (JUL/AUG 1994) Dare a Nepali from the midhills of Nepal write an article about Bhutan, more particularly an analysis of the innermost challenges before Drukpa society today? Can a Bengali do justice to Mizoram, or a Garhwali to Punjab? Obviously, the answer is ‘yes’, but only with full respect …
From HIMAL, Volume 7, Issue 2 (MAR/APR 1994) The camera cheats on the Himalaya because the filmmaker gets away with it.Documentaries will become more truthful as the locals get to critique them. On 22 July 1993, in the village of Ghemi in Upper Mustang, crew members of a company named Intrepid Films was shooting a …
From HIMAL, Volume 7, Issue 2 (MAR/APR 1994) At Himal magazine, we ran a film festival for three days and rejoiced for weeks afterwards. The audience’s warm embrace of a festival of documentary films was so meaningful that we are energised even in the editing of this magazine. The cover features of this issue are …
From HIMAL, Volume 6, Issue 6 (NOV/DEC 1993) The Lower Hudson Valley is on the other side of the globe from the mountains of South Central Asia. But then New York City, at the mouth of the Hudson River, is the cultural capital of the world, where no region goes unrepresented. A quick review of …
From HIMAL, Volume 6, Issue 5 (SEP/OCT 1993) As remote control switches from Islamabad, New Delhi and Kathmandu open up restricted areas for tourism, Baltis, Sherpas, Ladakhis and Lobas are suddenly spolighted. The high valleys are playing host to tourists, climbers, journalists, film-makers and scholars, many of them in desperate search of places more Tibetan …
From HIMAL, Volume 6, Issue 4 (JUL/AUG 1993) Quite a few readers were taken aback when we brought out our Literature Issue (May/Jun 1993).We think it was a pleasant surprise to most, and now feel that it is a good idea to be occasionally unpredictable. When we first planned the present issue, we had not …