Reading Himalayan Landscapes over Time. Environmental Perception, Knowledge and Practice in Nepal and Ladakh.

Edited by Joëlle Smadja ; translated from French by Bernadette Sellers, Collection Sciences Sociales 14, 2009, xiv, 671 p., ill. + 1 folded map.
Language: English. 1000 Rs (44 €).
ISBN: 978-81-8470-170-8.

The authors of this book propose a new interpretation of the diversity and transformation of Himalayan landscapes through a study of the relationship between Nepalese and Ladakhi societies and their environment. Natural data on the range, demography, perceptions and representations of environments, their history, current examples of resource management are the subject of often unprecedented investigations.

By associating studies from various disciplines, local knowledge, meticulous fieldwork, as well as archive research, the book prompts us to re-examine the catastrophist theories on the degradation of Himalayan environments. It emerges that any intervention on these environments should take into account their symbolic and religious dimension, as well as the very knowledge populations have of them. Finally, this work contributes to fuelling debates on environmental changes and to reformulating them. This book was first published in French in 2003.

Keywords: Himalayan landscapes, environment, history, local knowledge, resource management