Reviews of the latest books from and on Southasia
HUMAN IMPACT ON MOUNTAINS Nigel J.R. Allan (Editor) Gregory W. Knapp and Christoph Stadel Rowman and Littlefleld U$ 42.50 This comprehensive examination of the effects of human civilization on various mountain regions of the world was written by a distinguished international group of mountain geography experts. Part One surveys the development and scope of the science of mountain geography and introduces the concepts of geo-ecology, altitudinal zonation, and ecosystem approaches. Part Two examines expression and effect of traditional livelihoods, such as agriculture, forestry, and mining, upon the mountain environment in non-industrial societies. Part Three deals with the transformation of the mountain ecosystems, relating both to land and people, and the profound impact of modernization and its socioeconomic considerations, improved accessibility, and advanced industrial techniques.
THE GREAT TANGSHAN EARTH-QUAKE OF 1976 by the State Seismological Bureau People´s Republic of China Pergamon, Pounds 20 This book describes the massive recovery effort mounted after the 1976 earthquake in northern China. Relief workers who rushed to the scene lacked special training and equipment and so were helpless when confronted with fallen concrete slabs and heavy wreckage. As for the social consequences, earthquake phobia seized the nation, and millions of people left their homes to live in makeshift shelters. In Beijing, 700,000 residents stayed in tents for days, the fear spreading to foreign embassies. The details of the earthquake have been meticulously studied, and the authors make clear that the physics of such shocks is not yet understood sufficiently even for shortterm predictions to be made with any kind of confidence. Chinese scientists had thought that some empirical rutes could be applied to all earthquakes. Tangshan proved them wrong. The Chinese rebuilt Tangshan and on the same site. By 1986, the only signs of its destruction were the buildings left as monuments. {New Scientist)
REPORTING ON THE ENVIRON-MENT: A HANDBOOK FOR JOURNALISTS
The Asian Forum of Environmental Journalists I98S The Handbook contains hard information
on how to go about gathering and presenting environmental news. Though aimed primarily at the print media, the information will also prove useful to television and radio journalists. The first part contains guidelines for reporting on environmental issues and the role of environmental reporting, preparation and interviewing. The second half contains brief guides to current environmental concerns such as acid rain, desertification, the use of pesticides, the greenhouse effect and radiation. (The Rising Nepal)
THE TIBET GUIDE by Stephen E. Batchelor Wisdom Publications 1987 U$ 13.95
The latest of a number of guidebooks on Tibet, the focus of this one is on the religious culture and history of Tibet, but the choice of language and style is that of the popular western Buddhist press. The book lingers over central Tibet, the route to Nepal, and the Mt.Kailash/Manasarovar areas. Some scholars and general readers will be uneasy with the parts of the text that deal with Buddhist philosophy, ritual and human psychology. The book could benefit from a fuller treatment of some themes and more tabular presentation of other material. It is not the ideal introduction to the country and people for all travellers. (Himalayan Research Bulletin)
THE POWER-PLACES OF CENTRAL TIBET: PILGRIM´S GUIDE by Keith Dowman Routledge and Kegan Paul 1988 U$ 16.95
This book provides practical information on the location and significance of major religious sites of Central Tibet, most of them within 250 km of Lhasa. About 170 "power places" are described, including cave sites, temples and monasteries, chortens and sacred rocks. Dowman notes that about 40 sites remained in ruins in 1985 (though there are plans to renovate many of these sites). At 40 other sites, new temples or chortens have been rebuilt since 1980. At almost 40 additional sites the structure of at least one prel950 temple remained, though usually defaced and stripped of its sacred ornamentation, Dowman finds reason to be optimistic about the status of Buddhist dharma in the high plateau, arguing that "today the pilgrim finds a youthful and resurgent culture relying on its own inner strength". (Himalayan Research Bulletin)
OCCASIONAL PAPERS IN SOCI¬OLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME ONE edited by James F. Fisher Central Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Tribhuvan University 1987 This is a collection of writings by Nepali scholars and the editor, an American Fulbright scholar at Tribhuvan University. The subjects discussed are the role of sociology and anthropology in the country´s development, forest management by hill communities, poverty in the Tarai, as well as a cutting analysis of "development" by sociologist Chaitanya Mishra. Overall, this publication is meant to mark the coming of age of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. We look forward to Volumes Two and Three.
RIVER GANGA: AN OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH Edited by S.N. Sinnarkar, S.K. Kesarwani and S.G. Bhal National Environmental Engineering Research Institute 1987 This is a comprehensive compilation of works on pollution of the Ganga. The contributions include important research conducted on the subject since the 1970s. Points of view often differ from one section to the next. There is also some repetition in the text. Ongoing research programmes are highlighted and there is an exhaustive bibliography. Two meager paragraphs is ali that community participation and health effects of pollution receive in this book, perhaps indicating the bias of scientists who rarely give due regard to social and cultural parameters of pollution. This is all the more glaring when the subject is the Ganga, which is much more than just another watercourse, (The Timea of India)
ECSTACY AND HEALING IN NEPAL An Ethnographic Study of Tamang Shamanism Larry Peters
Undena Publications US15.50 This book is the result of the author´s fieldwork in the Tamang village of Tin Chuli, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, in the course of which he apprenticed himself to a Tamang shaman named Bhirendra (sic). One of the eight chapters is devoted to Peters´ experience as a shaman´s disciple who did not really believe in the spirit world which was being introduced to him. The rest of the book contains information on Tamang religious roles, native medical beliefs and the nature of trance among Tamang shamans. The book contributes to the ethnography of Tamangs, a group less extensively documented than the Magars, Gurungs or Sherpas. However, the quantity and quality of the ethnographic research is disappointing. (American Ethnologist).
THE HIMALAYAS
Profiles of Modernisation and Adaptation S.K. Chaube (Editor) Sterling Publishers, New Delhi Much of the academic literature on the Himalaya tends to concentrate on Nepal and the Indian hill districts to its west. For a change, here is a book that deals with Nepal and the rest of the Himalaya to its east. This volume is a compilation of papers presented at a seminar in the Centre for Himalayan Studies, University of North Bengal. The contributions by prominent Indian and Nepali social scientists deal with the impact of tourism in the Nepal Himalaya and the Utcar Pradesh hills; the ecology of tea plantations; demographic trends in the Darjeeling hill areas; adaptation of Nepali castes in Darjeeling to their new social status; problems of the tribal peoples of the Eastern Himalayas; and recent processes of nation building in Nepal and Bhutan.
NEPAL: PERSPECTIVES ON DEVEL¬OPMENT ISSUES Leo E. Rose (Editor) University of California, Berkeley 1987 This compilation starts with a thoughtful address given by HM King Birendra at the University of California, Berkeley, on the principles and objectives underlying Nepal´s political system. What follows is the gathered wisdom of a 14 Nepali and American scholars on Nepal, including Gerald Berreman, Dor Bahadur Bista, James Fisher, Merrill Goodall, Harka Gurung, Judith Justice, Yadu Nath Khanal, Kul Sekhar Sharma, Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, Rita Thapa and Ram Prakash Yadav. A revealing and sometimes provocative portrait of Nepal emerges in discussions on disparate subjects such as the impact of
modernization on ethnicity, changes in Newar urban living, Nepal´s economic performance, the population explosion, land use in the Tarai, and "human poverty" as the central problem of the hills. There is also a section on US-Nepal relations, though it is unclear how this fits in a book on development issues.
THE DYNAMICS OF POLYANDRY Nancy E. Levine The University of Chicago Press 1988
This book examines polyandry, as it is practiced by the Nyinba, a Tibetan people who live in Humla, in far northwest Nepal. Levine argues that polyandry cannot be explained by economic and demographic factors alone, but is, in part, an expression of values emphasizing fraternal solidarity, identity and political strength, Levine also presents a comprehensive and insightful analysis of the interrelationships between polyandry and Nyinba social organization, political life, kinship, identity and economics. She shows the complex interplay between individual decision making and wider sociocultural processes, as well as the contradictions inherent in the institution of polyandry. The author is also careful to place her discussion of polyandry firmly within the wider context of Nepali society. (Tom Cox)
Name in brackets indicates the source of the abstract, if originally reviewed elsewhere.
THE FOLLOWING ABSTRACTS ARE CARRIED BY ARRANGE¬MENT WITH THE ENVI¬RONMENTAL SERVICES GROUP, NEW DELHI
Jackson, Peter
THE MOST ENDANGERED TWELVE ANIMALS AND TWELVE PLANTS. HOW THEY HAVE FARED Newsletter of the Species Survival Commission No.8 Feb 1987 A fresh list of 12 most endangered animals and plants was prepared in 1986; this includes the Relict Himalayan Dragonfly Epiophlebia laidlawi, occurring in Nepal and India. The dragonfly co-existed with the dinosaurs but is now endangered by human impact on its Himalayan habitat.
THE LESSER CATS PROJECT IN EASTERN INDIA; PROJECT 1357 World Wildlife Fund-India Newsletter No.59 Winter 1986
Little is known of the "lesser cats" because of their secretiveness and the dense vegetation among which they live. The scientists of the Zoological Survey of India, led by Biswamoy Biswas, have been carrying out surveys in northern West Bengal and Sikkim. They report habitat destruction and diminishing numbers of the cat species, and recommend measures such as preservation of specific areas, captive breeding, and the introduction of certain species in sanctuaries.
Nautiyal, Prakash
STUDIES ON THE RIVERINE ECO¬LOGY OF TORRENTIAL WATERS IN THE INDIAN UPLANDS OF THE GARHWAL REGION; FLORISTIC AND FAUNISTIC SURVEY Trop Ecol 27(2) 1986 The study describes significant differences in the ecology of the Alaknanda and Nayar rivers and states that the extent and nature of aquatic life is determined by the current velocity, turbidity and water temperature. A classification applicable to all the streams and rivers of the Indian uplands of the Garhwal region has been proposed. Placid "eurythermal" streams such as the Nayar can support high primary and secondary production, and the turbulent "stenothermal" streams such as the Alaknanda are less productive. (Dept. of Zoology, University of Garhwal, Srinagar 246 174, U.P.)
AERIAL SEEDING A FLOP The Times of India, 6 July 1987 Aerial seeding operations in the Chambal ravines of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have success rates of 0.4 to 9 percent. They have largely been "panic operations", a desperate bid to achieve the high national target of reclaiming 5 million hectares of wastelands annually. In the Chambal operations, 30 percent of what was passed off as seeds was just chaff and dust. The seeds were not adequately prepared for germination and were air¬dropped before the monsoon so their chances of survival diminished even further. In to order set the programme right, assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organization was sought and an Indian forester and a pilot sent to Canada to learn the latest in seeding technology.