Reviews of the latest books from and no Southasia

FOREIGN AID AND FOREIGN POLICY THE CASE OF BRITISH AID TO NEPAL
by R. Andrew Nickson Development Administration Group University of Birmingham, 1992 ISBN 0 7044 1258 6 6 Pounds
This 45-page monograph, presented as "the first comprehensive analy si s of the Britis h aid programme to Nepal", provides a historical account of the growth of British aid, followed by an examination ofsix major projects which together made up British development assistance to Nepal during the 1980s. The author argues that the development impact of British aid has been very low, concluding that this poor performance can only be understood "by reference to the subordination of development objectives to wider foreign policy objectives in the British aid programme, namely support for monarchial autocracy in exchange for access to Gurkha recruitment". Even when commercial and industrial considerations have been of minimal importance, as in the case of Nepal, the developmental impact of foreign aid can still be limited by a wider political objective of generating "goodwill".
RITES OF PASSAGE:
AN ASPECT OP RAI CULTURE
by Sueyoshi Toba
Royal Nepal Academy, Kathmandu 1992
This slim volume by Toba, a linguist, is the result of field work done in and around a Khaling Rai village in East Nepal. Toba describes stages of birth, marriage and death rites and observes that old and typical Rai rites are being replaced by new ones under the influence of Hindu culture. Certain ritual elements, however, remain strong. Toba believes that rituals are helpful in easing people, the Raisin this instance, through traumatic transitions in a ´modernising´ Nepal. The book comes with what seems to be a grudging foreword by the Vice-Chancellor of the Royal Nepal Academy, the publisher.
MOUNTAIN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Vol 12, No. 4, November 1992 J & P Ives, editors University of California Press This issue oiMRD contains papess presented at the Conference of the African Mountains Association, held in Rabat, Morocco in September 1990. The eleven contributions provide wide-ranging information on the different mountain systems of Africa, including the Rif and Tell mountains of North Africa, the Babnoutos Mountains of West Cameroon, and the Eastern African Mountains of Ethiopia and Kenya. Tens of millions of people subsist on the natural resources of the continent´s mountains and highlands, writes Guest Editor Abdellatif Bencherifa, who warns, however, that the resources base of the mountains and highlands is increasingly being marginalised through over-
36 HIMAL   •   Jan/Feb 1993
 
use and environmental degradation, exacerbated by the traditional developmental disregard of mountain regions.
MOUNTAIN GODDESS
GENDER AND POLITICS IN A HIMALAYAN
PILGRIMAGE
by William S. Sax Oxford University Press New York, 1991 ISBN 0 19 506979 X
Every few decades, thousands of Hindu villagers of Garhwal carry their "regional goddess" Nandadevi in a bridal palanquin to her husband Shiva´s home in the snows. A ritual dramatisation of the post-marital juoumey of married women from their natal village to those of their husbands, this pilgrimage leads the traveler over the Himalayan icefields past a snowbound lake surrounded by human bones. Sax offers an account of this arduous journey, focusing on the importance of the cult of Nandadevi in the lives of local women. He shows that Nandadevi´s appeal stems from the fact that her mythology parallels the life-courses of Central Himalayan peasant women, "just as her ritual processions imitate their periodic journeys between their natal and marital homes."
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF NEPAL
Bharat Upreti, Kanak B. Thapa, editors FREEDEAL, Kathmandu 1992
This is the first book to be published on the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 2047 (1990). Distinguished judges, senior advocates and academics, writing in Nepali, discuss a variety of issues relating to the new Constitution, including constitutionalism, rule of law, pariiameijjpry democracy, separation of powers, and con s ti tutional monarchy. Issues are discussedundersev eral heads, including the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary. There is detailed treatment of fu ndamental rights and remedies under the Constitution, and the last section discusses emergency powers, the Preamble, political parties, citizenship, and amendments.
THE NYINGMA SCHOOL OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM
by Dudjom Rinpoche Translated and edited by Matthew Kapstein and Gyurme Dorje Wisdom Publications Boston, 1991
This two-volume encyclopedic publication contributes loan overall understanding of a complex system of thought and practice by presenting in definitive detail the teachings of the Nyingma or "Ancient Translation" school, the oldest in Tibet. This is said to be the first comprehensive exposition in Engl ish of the philosophical integrity and historical continuity of a major Tibetan Tantric Buddhist tradition. Dudjom Rinpoche (1904-1987) was one of the most respected and prolific scholars of his ti me, a 1 ineage master w ho held all the tran smi ssions
 
of the Nyingma school, of which he was the supreme head. Book One was originally intended as a work which would preserve Nyingma teachings for Tibetan practitioners and hence is written in Ihe terse and highly structured philosophical style of Tibetan ´grubmtha´ literature. (Source of abstract: Newsletter of the South Asian Institute, Columbia Univeisity).
NEPAL
WORLD BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SERIES
Vol 38
Compiled by John Whelpton with assistance of Lucette Bondnoisjiavid Gellner, Michael Hull, Abhi Subedi and Carol Tingey Clio Press, Oxford 1990, U$75
This is part of a series of country-wise annotated bibliographies, each volume of which, itis claimed, "seeks to achieve, by use of careful selectivity and critical asessment of the literature, an expression of the country and an appreciation of its nature and nationalinspirations, to guide the reader towards an understanding of its importance." The 33 subject-headings, over which 917 entries are divided, is prefaced wi th a short introduction to Nepali history and society by John Whelpton. The monographs and articles annotated arc mostly those written in the English language. A 34-page index of authors, titles of publications and subjects makes this volume very usable. At US 75 (as of 1991), only the richest of libraries should be able to afford it.
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SNOW AND GLACIER HYDROLOGY VOLUME OF ABSTRACTS
Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Kathmandu November 1992
This volume of abstracts was readied for the above symposium {Kathmandu 16-21 November 1992) and contains summaries of 59 papers that were presented by an international cross-section of scholars on the following themes: Snow and Glacier Hydrology, Data Bases and their Management for Water Resources Management, Climatic Change and Snow, Glaciers and the Hydrological Cycle, Processes apd Models in Snow and Glacier Hydrology, Roods, Debris Flow and Avalanches, and "Glacio-Chemical Studies".
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
IN THE HIMALAYAS
Pmdeep Monga and P. Venkata Ramana
Indus Publishing Company, New Delhi
1992,
IRs 350
This book brings together papers presented at the
National Workshop on Energy and Environment
Issues in Mountain Development, held at Shimla in
Septemberl991.Thefocusofthebookisonthccris
said to be threatening the ecological balance of the
region.