Himalaya mediafile
What was the Dalai Lama doing on the cover of the Christmas issue of the French fashion magazine Vogue's Christmas issue (see page 3)? He was the editor! Taking a step up from the newspaper columnist he already is (for The Times of India), the Dalai Lama decided to go chic. He apparently wrote some of the text and "helped caption the photographs".
The Indian Northeast is little better than Kalapani for Indian civil servants and journalists alike, according to Prasun Sonwalkar in the TOI. He reports that an unnamed "national" English daily treats its Shillong office "as the punishment posting for errant corresondents". (We had always thought that Kathmandu was reserved for that.) As for IAS officers, Sonwalkar writes that the cadre in the Northeast is generally manned by reluctant and disgruntled officers, many of whom "have no interest in the hills and find the tribals tiresome." The assignments are made without taking into account a particular officer's "aptitude, willingness. or suitability to a particular state." Apparently, career prospects for those serving in the Northeast are considered dim, as they are considered to lack "sufficient exposure and experience to deal with 'all India' matters." Oh really?
Indian Himalayans finally seem to be getting over the fear of flying. STOL-fever, which Nepal has long been afflicted with, is finally catching on in the Uttar Pradesh hills, perhaps egged on by private "air-taxis" keen to carry rich plainsfolk who want quick access to exotic valleys. The UNI agency reports that three new airstrips are to be commissioned over the course of the year in Kumaon and Garhwal —in Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh and Chamoli districts. The Chamoli airstrip will be at Gauchar ("cow pasture"), which was also the original name for Kathmandu's international airport until it became Tribhuvan. So Gauchar lives!
The 17 December issue of Nature, the science magazine, carries an 'article (page 647-651) with some complicated scientific mumbo jumbo on how the monsoons developed as the Himalaya arose from the sea of Tethys. Since this columnist could not follow the. drift, if you know what I mean, reproduced here is the printed summary for your edification: "General-circulation-model simulations used to estimate the sensitivity of the Indian monsoon to changes in orbital paramaters, the orography of Tibet-Himalaya, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and the extent of glacial-age surface boundary conditions show that increased elevations and increased summer solar radiation are most effective in strengthening the monsoon. Strong monsoons (similar to today's) can be induced by strong solar forcing only when the elevation is at least half that of today. These conditions may have been attained in the late Miocene." In simple English all this seems to be saying is that monsoon clouds deliver rain because the Himalaya block their path.
The Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency reports that the Governments of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia are devoting much time, and money in research to revive old crops. Can the same be said for the states of the Himalaya? The Incas are said to have cultivated 70 species of crops (as many as the farmers of Europe and Asia combined), and a recent report lists 31 "last crops of the Incas" that can be revived in developing countries and in the West. These crops, says IPS, are exotic, colourful, hardy and full of flavour, as well as highly nutritious. According to one scientist, quinoa grains have been tested in the hills of Kenya, China and Nepal. "Quinoa would be great for the Tibetan highlands but there has not been any communication from the Chinese side," he said. Try Dharamsala.
The thaw in Indo-Chinese relations is so catching that it may begin to melt Himalayan glaciers. Jigme N. Kazi, reports from Sikkim in The Independent of Kathmandu that Gangtok is abuzz with excitement following news of the likely reopening of trade with Tibet over the Nathu La pass. Even as Indian and Chinese troops continue their faceoff on the 14,500 ft pass, Gantokites have started having visions of millions to be made from trade with the north. For, truth be told, the Chumbi Valley route that goes up the Tista is the closest to Tibet's populated Lhasa region (through Phari and Gyantse), compared to the other traditional trade routes up from Leh, Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh), Taklakot (recently opened in U.P.) and Kodari, northeast of Kathmandu. The Gangtkites might be gungho on Nathu La, but the Kalimpongis are not about to take things lying down, according to some reports. Kalimpong, which thrived on Tibetan trade after Younghusband forced through the Chumbi Valley mute, is laying claim to the Tibet trade as well, which if its had its way, would be conducted through the Jelepla pass instead of Nathu La. Who will win in this tussle, powerful Gangtok or a dying town of historical has-beens'?
There is a doctorate in communications theory waiting to be done on the baffling coverage of Bhutan that continues to receive in the international media. One reporter blows hot and another blows cold. Take the most recent sampling of two British magazines. The 6 December issue of The Independent of London's Sunday Magazine had a four-page spread by Tim McGirk which was of the breathless Crisis in Peaceful Shangri La variety. The piece, which refers to Southern Nepalis generically as "Gurkhas" begins thus: "In a faraway land there lives a handsome king married to four beautiful sisters. In his kingdom are snow leopards, unexplored mountains that rise higher than the clouds, and a woman, in the east who says she has made love to the yeti." Selected points to ponder on this very first para: "faraway" from whom…is Australia faraway from London? Handsomeness is a subjective and culture-specific concept. "Rising above the clouds" is not at all hard to do for Bhutan's Himalayan mountains (see-Nov/Dec 1992 Himal, page 22.). Snow leopards are found from Bhutan eastwards to the Hengduan and westwards all the way to Turkmenistan. And as far as the subject is on making love to the yeti, you have crazier folks in Kew claiming to have done much worse to non-anthropoids.
A 180 degree turnaround from McGirk's tall tales was to be had in the Geographical's January issue. The editors of the magazine, published jointly by the Royal Geographical Society and the BBC, decided to run Druk Yui on the cover, titling the story: "Behind the Mask: Ethnic Cleansing in Bhutan". Runs the summary, "Bhutan has assiduously promoted itself as a culturally intact Buddhist utopia. But there is a darker aspect to this mountain kingdom, one it has so fax succeeded in hiding. For the last two years, the Government has been conducting an increasingly violent campaign of persecution against the country's largest ethnic group." Harsh words by writer Carol. Hobson, who one suspects was not allowed a visa by Thimphu and diverted instead to the refugee camps and there got to interview Bhutan Peoples Party representatives Thimphu had better reassess its visa policy, whose increasingly selective use even against Western journalists can only lead to diminishing returns as far as 'spin control' is concerned.
Reuters, the international news agency, have come around, it seems. When the discussion turns to adjectification, the editors of Himal have always maintained that if Bengal can be Bengali, Israel, Israeli, and Himal, Himali, why should Nepal be 'Nepalese', especially if the vernacular adjective is also 'Nepali '?A Handbook for Reuters Journalists, the news agency's guide for its hackers now sees it Himal's way. The Handbook one-liner is terse but to the point: "Nepali: Not Nepalese as adjective."
A TOI report from Dahra Dun has a tabloid-like headline that would have done Lady Di proud: "Valley of Flowers may lose bloom".The Doon-based Forestry Research Institute says that the total grazing ban which was imposed back in 1982 might actually be responsible for "the extinction of scores of species of rare flowers" in the well-known Valley, which is in Chamoli District. The flowers, which used to bloom respendently during the summer months, apparently do not do so with as much enthusiasm now because they have been "suppressed by some fast-growing, taller and aggressive species." The grazing ban has actually altered the ear-system of the area. Polygonum Polystachum, a nasty plant that used once tube eaten up by goats and sheep during the summer when it was still small and succulent, 'these days has reared up to retard the growth of other. herbaceous species. Conservation might, after all these years, not be such a smart idea if it leads to deflowering of the Himalaya.