"Himalaya" is as grand, inspiring, thought provoking, beautiful and challenging as its namesake. It is a book to have on the coffee table not as decoration but as talisman, for it serves as mirror for the reader and magnifying glass for the Himalaya.
It is lovely to look at and enjoyable to read, and its essays will draw the reader back again and again. This is not a one-read book. A press release states that its purpose is to "...focus world attention on the pressing humanitarian and environmental concerns of the area encompassing India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and Pakistan—the legendary Roof of the World."
The roof of the world protects all life within that world. The more than 50 photographers and 40 writers whose work is presented in "Himalaya" make a compelling case that its humanitarian and environmental concerns are those of the entire earth and all mankind. Just as seeing and experiencing the Himalaya in person, reading and viewing "Himalaya" is likely to affect and change the reader's perceptions and, perhaps, actions.
Some of the contributors and people quoted are well known outside the mountain world—the Dalai Lama, Jimmy Carter, Ed Hillary, Dianne Feinstein, George Schaller, Maurice Herzog, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, Jim Whitaker, Richard Blum, Jon Krakauer, Mahatma Gandhi.
Some are famous within the mountain world—Galen Rowell, Jimmy Chin, Stan Armington, Barry Bishop, Gordon Wiltsie, Ed Webster, Charles Houston, Brent bishop, Conrad Anker, David Shlim, Ian Baker, Broughton Coburn, Erika Stone, Peter Hillary. Other names are unfamiliar to most readers, but each of these fine contributors has something to say or show that strikes to the heart of two quotes in the book:
"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive." His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
And:
"Visiting that place, and these people, you immediately realize that you've been given an astonishing gift. And having received something so valuable, how could anyone not feel the urge to give something back?" Jon Krakauer.
How, indeed? Anyone who lives in, visits or even sees the roof of the world is touched and altered in significant ways, as "Himalaya" illustrates and describes.
The first time I saw Mt. Everest in 1981, from the ruins of the ancient Buddhist monastery built on the precipitous hill above Xigar (Shegar) Tibet, its summit visible above an intervening ridge, I sat down in awe, in (yes) reverence and gratefulness for "an astonishing gift" contemplating its grandeur and my own good fortune to be there.
Among other things, for me "Himalaya" is a personal reminder of those people, places and times. The photos in this book will draw the viewer back again and again. My personal two favorites: on page 214, a young Tibetan girl of 6 or so on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash with her parents stares at the camera with such clarity, trust, hope and heart that Krakauer's words, "... how could anyone not feel the urge to give something back?" could well be under the photo.
On page 227, is Peter Jackson's photo of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary taken at Tengboche Monastery on June 4, 1953, less than a week after their first ascent of Everest. It is an iconic photo of two men of starkly different backgrounds and cultures who arguably gave back more and did more than anyone else to bring the modern world and its changes into the Himalaya and its traditions.
On this first reading of this marvelous book my favorite essays were by Erica Stone and George Schaller. Stone, president of the American Himalayan Foundation and widow of an old friend, and Everest climber Dr. Gil Roberts, a Tae kwon do fifth-degree black belt, writes of visiting Dr. Ashok Banskota in his makeshift hospital in a converted Kathmandu house where he treated dozens of children disabled with polio, club feet, tuberculosis of the spine, burns and amputations.
It was a place she described as, "... full of children and light on space and equipment." She writes, "One day as we negotiated the narrow stairs to the wards, I stopped him and asked, 'When are you going to get a real hospital?'"
"'When you help me build one,' he said. That made sense. So we did."
"That made sense. So we did." Those six words reflect the heart of "Himalaya" and the hope of the Himalaya.
And George Schaller, the naturalist and writer, includes in his essay, "I am not a climber drawn by the siren songs of summits ... but a naturalist partial to rambling along ridges, a cloud walker, in search of wild landscapes to study, enjoy, and protect ... Mountaineers sometimes profane the gods and offend local people out of ignorance or indifference by trampling on sacred summits. Climbers in the United States persist in ascending Shiprock, a site holy to the Navajo. A Japanese team tried to climb sacred Kawa Karpo in eastern Tibet. Thousands of Tibetans are said to have prayed that the team would not succeed. All 17 climbers died in an avalanche. Bhutan closed its high summits because of one team's surreptitious attempt at holy Gangkar Punzum...."
As mentioned, this is not a one read book. Next time I might favor Charles Houston's "First Into Paradise" essay, or Tshering Dorjee's "Escape Into Exile," or, most likely, Brot Coburn's "The High Road to Lo." Next time I might stop at the photo on page 233 of Sherpa women sipping tea at a ceremony honoring Sir Edmund Hillary, or of the iconic Great Stupa of Boudhanath on page 222, or, for sure, climbers on the West Ridge of Everest on page 74.
What is sure is that I will return to "Himalaya." I recommend you do the same.
Sherpa elders drink tea at a holiday festival in the Mt. Everest region. Photo by Frances Klatzel
