Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Celebrate a mountainous anniversary

Event includes new book on Himalayas, talks and movie


By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

A young Tibetan girl makes a visit to a traditional medical clinic in the Kham province of eastern Tibet. Photo credit Matthieu Ricard

People the world over have nurtured a fascination with Mount Everest and the Himalayas. Despite the amount of money spent annually putting together high profile climbs and treks, people in these remote regions often live without basic health care and education.

Economic pressures have caused environmental decline as traditional ways of life are also in danger of disappearing. Founded 25 years ago, the American Himalayan Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the people and ecology of the magical Himalayas.

Besides encouraging Tibetans to rebuild and maintain their culture in exile, and within Tibet, the Foundation helps to build schools, plant trees, train doctors, fund hospitals, take care of children and the elderly, and restore sacred sites throughout the Himalayas.

On Monday, Dec. 11, at 6 p.m., the American Himalayan Foundation and the Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival will host a special evening to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the American Himalayan Foundation and the launch of a new book, "Himalaya: Personal Stories of Grandeur, Challenge and Hope" at the nexStage Theater in Ketchum.

The gala event includes a reception and book signing, followed at 7 p.m. by the program and viewing of the film, "Escape Across the Himalayas," a 30-minute documentary directed by Maria Blumencron and Richard Ladkani. Special guests will include authors and contributors to the book, Broughton Coburn, Luigi Fieni, Dr. David Shlim, and Greg Wilson.

Ketchum resident Wolf Riehle will also recount an experience from his recent climb of Cho Oyu on the border between Nepal and Tibet.

Wyoming resident Broughton Coburn has worked in the Himalayas for 20 of the past 33 years, initially as a Peace Corps volunteer teacher and later as an overseer of rural development and wildlife conservation efforts for the United Nations, World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund. Today, he works for the American Himalayan Foundation as its first field director in Kathmandu. He is the author of six books on the region, including "Everest: Mountain Without Mercy" and co-author of "Touching My Father's Soul: A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest," with Jamling Tenzing Norgay. He is co-editor of "Himalaya; Personal Stories of Grandeur, Challenge and Hope" with Richard Blum and Erica Stone.

Luigi Fieni, an art conservator who participated in the restoration of the Sistine Chapel, has worked for the American Himalayan Foundation for eight years. He is in charge of conservation for the cultural preservation of wall paintings and statues in monasteries in Upper Mustang, Nepal and Bhutan. He is also teaching restoration techniques to local people, and has coupled his travels and restoration work with a passion for photography.

Dr. David R. Shlim spent 15 years in Nepal running the Clinic Travel Medicine Center and providing medical care for a large Tibetan Buddhist monastery. There, his friendship with the head lama, Chokyi Nyima Rimpoche, led to their collaboration on the book "Medicine and Compassion: A Tibetan Lama's Guidance for Caregivers."

Greg Wilson, climber and English teacher at the Wood River Middle School in Hailey, has been a professional mountain guide since 1981 with 110 ascents of Mt. Rainier. Wilson has guided the seven summits, for the highest peak on each continent and has participated in more than 100 high altitude mountaineering expeditions worldwide.

Tickets are available at Chapter One Bookstore or are $15 at the door.




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