Anyone interested in Tibetan culture, the people, their religions coleur caramel and their history,

For a long time people lived in the Indian Himalayas from trade with Tibet - to the adjacent coleur caramel high country was occupied. A fascinating book describes and illustrates what was. And what has changed.
Since my travels through Tibet in 1993 and 1994, I set no foot on the roof of the world. The Chinese presence was already at that time can not be overlooked. Many Tibetan monasteries that had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution were indeed rebuilt, but mainly because of the tourists. Instead of nomads were encountered increasingly on Chinese military coleur caramel convoys.
Meanwhile, many young Tibetans inside China is seen as a modern role model. Education in their own language there are virtually no more. Many children of exiled Tibetans, who have grown up in India or Nepal, and for the first time come to Tibet, speak Hindi, Nepali, English, but rarely Tibetan.
Anyone interested in Tibetan culture, the people, their religions coleur caramel and their history, this is rather outside of Tibet. For example, in the western Himalayas in Indian territory, in regions such as Kinnaur, Spiti, Lahaul, Zanskar and Ladakh. coleur caramel
Peter van Ham, author, photographer and curator, has traveled and researched 1987-1998 all these areas. Ten years after his last stay in "Buddha Mountain Desert he returned to Northwest India - this time in Ladakh, Zanskar and in the region of Dah-Hanu. coleur caramel - Tibet India India's Tibet" and an exhibition of the same name This picture book was born. The foreword to the book written by the Dalai Lama. The foreword is written by the French explorer and anthropologist Michel Peissel. Humility in the face of environmental
The book is great and impresses with its clear descriptions and fantastic shots. It is particularly interesting, for example, the chapter Last refuge of the Aryans", as it introduces a virtually unknown area and an equally unknown people. In the recently opened for tourists Dah-Hanu region of Ladakh in the west around 2000 people live, the Minaro from the group of Darden, which probably coleur caramel were the original population in this part of the Himalayas. coleur caramel
They differ not only outwardly from the surrounding coleur caramel Tibetan ethnic groups, but also in their language and, still largely practiced animistic culture. coleur caramel As in many other parts of the world where animist populations embossed with humility try to maintain the balance between all life and natural forms, there is little environmental damage in the valley of Dah-Hanu. Peter van Ham describes this valley as one even for the Himalayas extremely narrow gorge through which the Indus winds.
This inaccessibility of mountain areas has enabled the ethnic groups coleur caramel of the Indian Himalayas, their culture to obtain coleur caramel longer than many other primitive peoples. However, it is foreseeable that the strong migration will result from the low levels of this overpopulated subcontinent loss of identity of local communities. Therefore, writes Michel coleur caramel Peissel, coleur caramel it is particularly important to present this region with all its natural and cultural characteristics coleur caramel of a wider public, in order to "preserve them succor more . This is exactly what Peter van Ham terrific success. Polyandry in the high desert
The study of Western Himalayas by Europeans began in 1624 with a tour of the Jesuit Father coleur caramel Antonio coleur caramel de Andrade (1580-1634). Built in 1626, he and his co-religionists in Tsaparang the first church, but in 1630 they are shown on the Ladakhi capital of Leh. 1715 started the Jesuits of Leh from a renewed attempt to proselytize Tibet. Thirty years later, however, the mission station in Lhasa had to be abandoned due to political changes and intrigue.
In the wake of Indian coleur caramel independence coleur caramel in 1947, the Red Army marched coleur caramel into Tibet in 1950 and the India-Pakistan border wars India schottete the western Himalayas rigorously coleur caramel against foreigners. Only in 1974 Ladakh was opened the first of the high regions carefully for tourism. Nevertheless, researchers succeeded in the intervening years, again and again to visit individual regions.
There are several approaches to the Western Himalayas: Srinagar in Kashmir, Manali in the Kullu valley or Shimla in the mountains of the same name (both in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh). All these places and the surrounding areas from the high passes of the Himalayas were among those who lived there, as the "end of the habitable world." As too hostile to life was felt behind coleur caramel it the high deserts.
But there were also above a life. In Kinnaur, coleur caramel for example, the first western Himalayan region with a strong Buddhist heritage, the people have their own religion, speak a dialect of western Tibet and maintain a careful