Reviews of the latest books from and on Southasia

The Sherpas of Nepal
io the Tibetan Cultural Context
by Robert A. Paul Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi
1989 IRs95 (paperback) The title of this book highlights the Sherpas, but the author´s entire attention is actually directed to the culture and society of Tibet. Paul starts his analysis "…in that corner of the Tibetan world with which I have direct personal acquaintance, namely the ethnology of the Sherpas of Solu-Khumbu." He begins with a study of Sherpa so¬cial institutions and proceeds to analyse several of the great literary monuments of Tibetan cul¬ture proper, from different parts of Tibet and from different eras. Finally, the book studies the institution of theocracy and its transformation through the course of Tibetan history. The aim is to cany out a psychoanalytic exploration of the Tibetan symbolic world. The author uses the as¬sassination of the anti-Buddhist king of Tibet, Gland-dar-ma, in 842 AD as a device for break¬ing into "the endless knot of interwoven strands of symbolism in Sherpa and Tibetan culture" and to explain quasi-legendary history in terms of a complex and coherent language of symbolism. In analysing the king´s death, Paul sees the depth, centraliry, significance, and "grammaticality" of symbolism.
Conservation Communication in Nepal
byAditya Man Shrestha Published by author, Kathmandu 1989 NRs200
This book is an attempt to alert decision-makers of the importance of communication in promot¬ing effective forest management in Nepal. Shres¬tha, who is President of the Asian Forum of Environmental Journalists, presents a strategy for conservation communication, with particular reference to Nepal´s Tarai plains. This strategy has been formulated on the basis of an overall review of the state of mass media and interper¬sonal communication systems in Nepal. The author goes on to deal with selection of com¬munication tools (radio, print media, etc), selec¬tion of messages, production aspects (from brochures and logo stickers to T-shirts) and cost estimates (T-shirts: NRsSO per piece).
Land-Locked States and Access to the Sea (Towards a Universal Law)
by Kishore Uprety
Nepal Law Society, Kathmandu
1989NRs75
One-fifth of the international community, 30 States in all, states the author, are without a coastline. In varying degrees, this lack of access to the sea engenders a series of economic, juridi¬cal and political problems, as is clear from the current Indo-Nepal problem. Uprety, who holds a doctorate in International Law from the University of Paris/Sorbonne, takes a sweeping yet analytical view of the histoiy and application
 
of right of access to the sea. He maintains that the much-ballyhooed 1982 United Nations Con¬vention on the Law of the Sea lacked "a creative approach" and has not helped to clarify the rights and status of states without access (SWA). "The SWA are still to be considered the losers in this Convention, particularly the land-locked States of Africa, Asia and South America," Uprety says.
Nepal Mandala
Nepal Travellers´ Guide
by Richard Josephson Pilgrims Book Store, Kathmandu 19S8NRsl29
Printed in Nepal, with fine line drawings (which we could not find credited), this is a new addi¬tion to travel guides on Nepal. It is unique in that much of it is a simplified distillation of Mary S. Slusser´s celebrated work, Nepal Mandala, which weighs five kilos and costs US150. Addi¬tional practical information for the traveler has been added by Josephson. The Slusser half of the book opens with a history of Nepal from Lichhavi times (300 A,D.) to the present, dealing along the way with the evolution of a culture. It also covers wars, cultural exchange, migration, architecture, and the mix of Buddhism and Hin¬duism in Kathmandu.
Aksai Chin and Sino-Indian Conflict
by John Loll
Allied Publishers, (New Delhi) 1989IRsl50
The Aksai Chin, north-east of Leh and between Sinkiang and Western Tibet, has remained a thorn on the side of Sino-Indian relations since the war of 1962. Lall´s new book, states a reviewer in the New Delhi Statesman, is impor¬tant because it discusses a British Note to the Chinese Government dated 14 March 399 and its implications for the Indian claim to the Askai Chin in the Western Sector of the Sino-Indo boundary dispute. The 1899 Note reportedly proposed a boundary in which the route of the Chinese road linking Sinkiang with Tibet would have been located on Chinese (or Chinese-protected) soil. There did not emerge any offi¬cially defined border here between 1899 and 1947 other than that indicated by the 1899 Note. The suggestion is that there might have been no war in 1962 had India accepted the 1899 bound¬ary,
Buddhist Book Illuminations
by Pratapaditya Pal and Julia Meech-Pekarik
Ravi Kumar Publishers, Hongkong 19S8U$225
This lavishly illustrated book introduces the sub¬ject of Buddhist text "illuminations" (gold or sil¬ver embellishments to illustrate covers, tide pages, and margins of religious works). Buddhist decorated manuscripts used for preserving and disseminating sutras were produced in India,
 
Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, In-donesia, China, Japan and Korea. Introducing the subject of illuminations in a historical perspective, the co-authors provide detailed description of illustrations and stylistic and scholarly interpretations. The two important centers for copying and illuminating manuscripts in Bihar were the monasteries of Nalanda and Vikramasila. The tradition disappeared in both Bihar and Bengal by the end of the 13th century, while it still survives in Nepal. Buddhist manuscripts arrived in Tibet from the seventh century onwards (from Kashmir and Nepal) and illumination and creation of manuscripts were regularly undertaken in the monasteries.
Himalayan Research and Development Problem Oriented Studies Vol 7 (I & II)
Himalayan Research Group, Naihital Subscription: IRs85 p.a. The June and December 1988 issue of this bi-an¬nual publication, just out now, presents a num¬ber of scientific articles on the ecology of the Indian Himalaya. One deals with the impact of climatic changes on "slope development" around the Uhl river in Kangra (Himachal Pradesh). Another discusses the problems and prospects of forage improvement in the cold, arid desert of Ladakh, Numerous other subjects are dealt with in this issue. For example, there are articles on urbanisation in the Himalaya, the presence of the fungi genus ramaria in Bhutan, the "hypothalamic neurosecretory system" of certain cold water fish in Kashmir, development of fisheries in Manipur, seasonal regime of water flow in rivers of Pithoragarh District, road transport accessibility in Kumaun Himalaya, and the menace of "white rust" plants in Garhwal Himalaya. There is a paper on the plant known locally as allo in Nepal, which yields fibre for making ropes, nets and sacks. There is an enumeration of the ferns of the Western (In-dian) Himalaya as well as an enumeration of the flora of Pithoragarh District. The latter lists a total of 2316 species of flowering plants belong¬ing to 994 genera and 175 families.
The Newars
by Gopal Singh Nepali Himalayan Booksellers, Kathmandu 1988 Price unlisted
This pioneering ethno-sociological study of the Newars of Nepal was first published in 1965 by United Asia Publications, Bombay. In his work, Nepali has concentrated on Kathmandu and the village of Panga for intensive study of urban and rural Newari lifestyles. The sections in the book are divided into "economic and material life", birth and initiation, death, caste organisation, gulhl organisation, marriage, the family, kinship, the Newar pantheon and festivals, both domestic and community-wide. The author also seeks to draw a link between the Newars and the Nayars of distant South-West India. The culture of the Newars, he states, "is oriented towards em¬phasising peacefulness, toleration, compromise

 
 
ABSTRACTS
   
and the cultivation of the artistic sense." The sum total of Newar culture-traits is "complete in¬tegration of the individual with the society", he says.
Tibet
The Lost Civilisation
by Simon Normanton Hamish Hamilton, London
1988    20 Pounds
This unique book is compiled al¬most entirely from the words and pictures of some of the very few outsiders who visited Lhasa in the first haif of this century, start¬ing with the pictures taken by the 1904 Younghusband Mission to Lhasa. Much of the interpreta¬tion of events in Tibet is derived from the book Tibel and Its History by Hugh Richardson, the British political representative who remained in Lhasa almost without a break from 1937 to 1950. The bulk of the text, however, is first-hand ac¬counts by people who knew "old Tibet". Norman¬ton has pieced together from the books of Tibet´s visitors, a continuing story of which their various adapted accounts constitute chapters. Most of the pictures are in colour, which is remarkable for the period we ate talking about. The text and photographic description of Younghusband´s push into Tibet is especially riveting.
Everest Kangshung Face
by Stephen Venables
Hodder and Stoughton, London
1989    IRs325
The Kangshung face on the eastern flank of Everest had till May 1988 remained one of the greatest challenges in Himalayan climbing. The sheer cliff that descended 7,000 feet from the South Col to the Kangshung Glacier was con-sidered practically un-climbable — Everest ex-plorer George Leigh Mallory had taken one look at the face back in 1924 and left it to "other men, less wise." Those men turned out to be the mem¬bers of the "Everest-88" expedition, one of whom was the Briton, Venables. This book goes beyond the ego trip of many climbei-writers and bears a sensitive touch, such as when Venables writes about the mountain and its history, fellow climbers and support staff, and the environment that surrounds him. As John Hunt writes in the foreword, the most gripping part of the book is the desperate descent after Venables reaches the summit on 3:40 p.m. on 12 May. He is forced to bivouac at 27,000 feet on the South-East Ridge, and the following morning rejoins two com¬panions to descend to the South Col. The three then fight their way down the Kangshung Face, frostbitten, dehydrated, without food, tents and sleeping bags abandoned, losing touch with their fixed ropes and finally losing touch with one another. "1 know of no finer example in moun¬taineering, of mind triumphing over matter," says Hunt of this climbing classic.
 
Oriental Rug Review April/May 1989 Vol9,No4 New York, U$S
Oriental Rug Review, a leading trade magazine from the United States, devotes this entire issue to Tibetan rugs, a subject on which little has been written to date. Editor George O´Bannon says: "Putting this Tibetan issue together has been a challenging, learning, and mysti¬cal experience…thus we learned about not only a different rug world but also different ways of looking and thinking about rugs."
Indeed, the wealth of information in this 80-pagc issue offers a valuable wash course on the many facets of manufac¬turing, designing, colouring, collecting (antiques) and marketing Tibetan rugs. Seventeen articles cover such subjects as "chemical analysis of Tibetan rugs and trappings," a Tibetan rug primer for the uninitiated, "Flying backwards on a Tibetan Rug," explaining how "playing (at) rugs" became a business, and travel stories touching on rugs and interiors found in Tibetan and Ladakhi monasteries. In short, there is ample space given to the warps and wefts of rugs as well as to the romance of the worlds where they were first woven and used. Helpful – often scholarly — background of ethnological and historical nature is also provided.
The most fascinating story recounts the evolution of the Nepali-Tibetan carpet industry – as the rugs produced in Nepal are called. Nepali -Tibetan rug-making began with the setting up of the .Tibetan Refugee Handicrafts Centre in Jawalakhel back in 1961. Rug-making is now a full-scale industry and earns Nepal about US60 million in foreign exchange, second only to tourism. It is possibly the largest employer (more than 200,000). It is remarkable that Nepal, which does not produce wool in any significant quantity, should produce arguably the best rugs of this kind, though there are signs its export niche will face growing competition from China and India. Another article is by a Tibetan-American, who quit his banking career to begin a new venture: Tibetan rugs from Tibet. The time is right, he writes, for a newly revitalised Tibetan rug in-dustry to take its rightful place as an exporter, which it had never achieved despite centuries of rug-weaving.
There is a "Conversation with Ivory Freidus", who owns "the most significant collection in the US, if not in the world." The New Yorker began collecting Tibetan rugs 18 years ago with a few "mangy" rugs she bought for U$100 from a Peace Corps volunteer who needed cash to return to Nepal. She now pays thousands of dollars for a good quality, old Tibetan rug from a fast deplet¬ing supply.
 
Lalitpur rug shop.
The only quibble with this long-deserving focus on this oriental — actually Himalayan — folk art is its rather flippant use of the word "karma" Wrote the interviewer of Freidus´ famous collec¬tion: "Or in a more mystical sense, they have come because the karma of the rugs have chosen her as the vehicle to make Tibetan rugs known to the world." In point of fact, Tibetan rugs have about as much karma as a factory-produced door-mat. The difference is that they are made with care, representing a craft that is centuries old, and the labour of hands.
 
Since 196S, the only English monthly to cover all aspects oi Tibetan affairs, includ¬ing news "from Tibet, commentaries on Tibetan history, culture, Buddhism, medicine and astrology.
Annual subscription rales: India, Bhutan and Nepal – IRs48 All other countries (airmail) –
IRsiSO US16 (or equivalent)
For a sample copy, please write to: The Editor Tibetan Review D-11, East of Kailash NewDelhM10 065