High
A Journey Across the Himalaya, Through Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, and China
Published on 3. January 2023
624 pages
978-1-63936-337-7 (ISBN)
Description
An ambitious and magnificent new travelogue by bestselling and prize-winning author Erika Fatland (The Border and Sovietistan), on a journey along the Himalaya.
The Himalaya weave through five very different countries, where the world religions of Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are mixed with ancient shamanic religions. Countless languages and vastly different cultures live in the secluded mountain valleys. Modernity and tradition collide, while the great powers fight for influence.
We have read about mountain climbers on their way up Mount Everest and about travellers on the spiritual quest for Buddhist monasteries. But how much do we know about the people living in the Himalaya? Fatland invites us into close encounters with the many peoples of the region, and at the same time takes us on a dizzying journey at altitude through incredible landscapes and dramatic, unknown world histories - all the way to the most volatile human conflicts of our times.
The Himalaya weave through five very different countries, where the world religions of Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are mixed with ancient shamanic religions. Countless languages and vastly different cultures live in the secluded mountain valleys. Modernity and tradition collide, while the great powers fight for influence.
We have read about mountain climbers on their way up Mount Everest and about travellers on the spiritual quest for Buddhist monasteries. But how much do we know about the people living in the Himalaya? Fatland invites us into close encounters with the many peoples of the region, and at the same time takes us on a dizzying journey at altitude through incredible landscapes and dramatic, unknown world histories - all the way to the most volatile human conflicts of our times.
More details
Persons
Erika Fatland studied Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Her 2011 book, The Village of Angels, was an in situ report on the Beslan terror attacks of 2004 and she is also the author of The Year Without Summer, describing the harrowing year that followed the massacre on Utøya in 2011. For Sovietistan (2019) she was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford/Lonely Planet Debut Travel Writer of the Year, and The Border (2020) was shortlisted for the Stanfords Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2020. Both are available from Pegasus Books. She speaks eight languages and lives in Oslo with her husband.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Dedication
- List of Illustrations
- A Bad Omen
- First Stage
- The New Silk Road
- High Stakes
- Family Planning in Fairyland
- Feast and Fast
- Love in the Time of the Taliban
- Border Crossing
- Paradise with a Curfew
- The Highest Battlefield in the World
- Of Gods and Men
- Little Tibet
- Emptiness and the Pursuit of Radio Waves
- The Source
- Champagne of the Mountains
- The Princess without a Kingdom
- Naked Treasures
- The Secretive Forest Ranger
- Gross National Happiness
- India's Wild East
- For Tomorrow
- Second Stage
- Child Goddesses
- Busy at the Top
- Stories from the Capital
- The Prince who Did Not Want to Be King
- The Snow Leopard
- The Thirsty God
- Terra Nullis
- The Lost Congregation
- The Middle of the World
- The Chinese Concubine
- Scheduled Flight to Shangri-La
- Kingdom of Women
- Photographs
- Acknowledgements
- About the Authors
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Copyright
