Guides: Alumni Travel Reading 2018-2019: Himalayan Kingdoms

Non-Fiction Works

White Mountain: Real and Imagined Journeys in the Himalayas by Robert Twigger
Call Number: Van Pelt Library DS485.H6 T85 2016
ISBN: 9780297608714
Publication Date: 2016
Twigger, follows a meandering path across the Himalayas to its physical end in Nagaland on the Indian-Burmese border. On this path he encounters stories from mountaineers and mystics, pundits and prophets.
Dragon Bones: Two Years Beneath the Skin of a Himalayan Kingdom by Murray Gunn
Publication Date: 2011
Murray Gunn and his French wife move to Bhutan for 2 years to better understand the little known Kingdom that is situated between India and China.
Sikkim: Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom by Andrew Duff
Publication Date: 2017
Sikkim is a Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas. This book relates the story of Thondup (the last King of Sikkim) and his wife who, together, sought support for Sikkim's independence.
Trekking the Mustang, 1964: Crossing Paths with Mastiffs and Khampas in the Himalayan Kingdom of Lo by David Rosenberg
Publication Date: 2016
A group of Peace Corp Volunteers in Nepal trek across the Himalays on foot to the town of Lo Manthang on the Tibetan Plateau. The book describes their journey though the physical environment, as well as their experiences with Buddhist culture and beliefs.

Fiction and the arts

Mad Country by Samrat Upadhyay
Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PR9570.N43 U636 2017
ISBN: 9781616957964
Publication Date: 2017
In Samrat Upadhyay's new collection Journalists in Kathmandu are targeted by the government, a Nepali man studying in America drops out of school and finds himself a part of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, a white American woman moves to Nepal and changes her name, a Nepali man falls in love with a mysterious foreign black woman, and a rich youth is caught up in his own fantasies of poverty and bank robbery.
Realms of Wonder by James Bennett
Call Number: Fine Arts Library. N8199.J34 R33 2013.
ISBN: 9781921668166
Publication Date: 2013
an introduction to the richly diverse art of India, Nepal, and Pakistan from the eighth century to the present day.
Nepal: A Guide to the Art and Architecture of the Kathmandu Valley by Michael Hutt et al.
ISBN: 8187392827
Publication Date: 1994
Draws on authoritative studies of Nepal's cultural history that have been published in European and Nepalese languages
With Dulcimer and Double bass: Trekking With Music to the Roof of the World by Charly Wehrle
Call Number: DS493.53 .W4413 2007
ISBN: 8177695762
Publication Date: 2007

Himalayan Kingdoms: Nepal & Bhutan

Monestary built into mountainside

Mountain Monastery by David Lazar

The Himalayan Kingdoms: Nepal & Bhutan. This iconic location and journey covers several ancient sites, temples and suptas in two distant, spiritual lands.One can see an ancient Buddhist complex at the Swayambhunath Temple to the culturally rich Patan and the renowned 15th century Bondhanath, Nepal's largest and most important Buddhist stupa. Other features include Nepal's holiest shire, Pashupatinath Temple, as well as Bhutan's capital, Thimphu, where one can experience first-hand Bhutanese culture. The Himalayan Kingdoms is an journey filled with history, culture, and wondrous aesthetics.

Life and Society

Facing Globalization in the Himalayas: Belonging and the Politics of the Self by Gérard Toffin and Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka, eds
ISBN: 9788132111627
Publication Date: 2014
This book explores the complex relationships between belonging and globalization in the contemporary Himalayan world and beyond.
Nepal Himalaya: A Journey Through Time by Photographs by Sujoy Das & text by Lisa Choegyal.
Call Number: Van Pelt Library GV199.44.N46 N47 2016
ISBN: 9789937623575
Publication Date: Kathmandu, Nepal : Vajra Books, 2016
Tales of Justice and Rituals of Divine Embodiment by Aditya Malik
Call Number: Van Pelt Library BL2016.K86 M35 2016
ISBN: 9780199325092
Publication Date: 2016
Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Central Himalayan region of Kumaon, Tales of Justice and Rituals of Divine Embodiment draws on oral and written narratives, stories, testimonies, and rituals told and performed in relation to the "God of Justice," Goludev, and otherregional deities.
Forever Incomplete: The Story of Nepal by Mahendra Man Singh
Call Number: Van Pelt Library DS494.5 .S63 2013
ISBN: 9788132110996
Publication Date: 2013
Forever Incomplete is the story of the Kingdom of Nepal. It will take the reader through various periods in her long history-from the birth and unification of the country, attempts at expansion, and clashes with neighbouring powers to the demarcation of its present-day borders.

Travel Video Guide

Kingdoms in the Himalayas (Asia) Vacation Travel Video Guide. Watch this hour long video guide to learn more about the sites and history of the kingdoms of the Himalayas.

The Himalayas

Photo by Himadri Karmakar

Swayambhunath by Jorge Lascar
Visit Swayambhunath, an ancient Buddhist temple and UNESCO site.

Pashupatinath-10 by Joel Solomon
Nepal's oldest and holiest Hindu shrine, Pashupatinath Temple.