Wild Himalaya: A Natural History of the Greatest Mountain Range on Earth

by Stephen Alter

The Himalaya span a distance of roughly 2,500 kilometres in length and between 350 and 150
kilometres in breadth, rising to a maximum height of almost 9 kilometres above sea level.
In Wild Himalaya, award-winning author Stephen Alter brings alive the greatest mountain
range on earth in all its terrifying beauty, grandeur and complexity. Travelling to all the five
countries that the Himalayan range traverses—India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal and China—
Alter braids together on-the-ground reports with a deep understanding and study of the
history, science, geology, environment, flora, fauna, myth, folklore, spirituality, climate and
human settlements of the region to provide a nuanced and rich portrait of these legendary
mountains. Adding colour to the narrative are riveting tales unearthed by the author of some
of the range’s most storied peaks—Everest or Chomolungma, Kanchenjunga, Annapurna,
Dhaulagiri, Nanga Parbat and others.

The book is divided into eight sections which delve deep into particular aspects of the
Himalaya. ‘Orogenesis’ explores the origin, evolution, geology, geography and other such
core aspects of these mountains; ‘The Third Pole’ concerns itself with weather, glaciers,
wetlands and rivers; ‘Flora Himalensis’ details extraordinary Himalayan plants and trees;
‘Winged Migrants’ goes deep into the world of Himalayan birds and insects; in ‘Mountain
Mammals’ we cross high passes and go above the treeline in search of brown bears, blue
sheep and snow leopards; ‘Ancestral Journeys’ takes a close look at human settlement in
the Himalaya and stories of origin and migration, both ancient and contemporary; ‘At the
Edge of Beyond’ recounts epic adventures and great mountaineering feats; and, finally, ‘In a
Thousand Ages of the Gods’ the author examines the essence of Himalayan art, folklore and
mythology as well as enigmatic mysteries such as the existence of the Yeti, along with key
questions of conservation.

Although there have been hundreds of books, and some masterpieces, about one or the
other aspect of the Himalaya, not one of them has come close to capturing the incredible
complexity and majesty of these mountains. Until now. In Wild Himalaya, Stephen Alter, who
considers himself an endemic species (having spent most of his life in these mountains),
gives us the definitive natural history of the greatest mountain range on earth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Nature, History, Geography

460 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2019

About the author

STEPHEN ALTER is the son of American missionaries to the Himalayas, and was raised in India. The author of seven books for adults, he is the former Writer-in-Residence at MIT, and a recipient of a Fulbright grant. He currently lives in India with his wife, where he is researching his newest book for adults—a behind the scenes look at the world of Bollywood.

Reviews

[Chandni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyrical and well-researched, Wild Himalaya is a treat to read and joyful escape in covid times. Alter writes authoritatively of Himalayan landscapes from lunar Ladakhi highs to verdant Sikkimese forests. In between, he takes us on a journey through the natural history of the grand Himalayas with sections on geology, rivers, plants and animals. Weaving local tales and religious beliefs with scientific studies, the book is truly transdisciplinary in its intent and execution. Most skillfully, the book describes past research and exploration in and on the Himalayas with a 21st century sensibility; calling out the marginalization of Indigenous people and hangover of colonial thinking in resource extraction.

From Darjeeling Alter writes, "A living legacy, tea carries with it a fragrance of fortune, a mercantile flavour and the bitter aftertaste of empire."

Of Joseph Hooker, British naturalist that no Indian botany student can escape, Alter expands, "Despite his admiration for Lepchas, who served as porters and plant collectors, Hooker's notes are tainted by the patronising prejudices of the times."

This book was special for me in many ways. Alter's writing on kaphal, banjh (oak) and buranj (rhododendron) took me back to my childhood in Mussoorie, trudging up to Landour and char dukaan or down to Bhatta Falls. His sections on bhojpatra (Indian birch) reminded me of my first serious trek to Gaumukh, as 11-year-old me marveled at the papery bark on which I wrote 'notes'. His descriptions of the awe-inspiring nature of Himalayan landscapes reminded me of my first job, where I trekked across the Himalayas, conserving medicinal plants, setting up fodder banks, and preserving natural springs.

Whether an insider or outsider to the mighty Himalayas, the book is an informative, engaging read. It will make you yearn to travel to them or eager to discover them if you haven't already.

[Divya Pal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that is a delight to hold and behold – this is true labour of love. It is based both on the extensive personal treks of the author, as well as intense research on this massive mountain range. The narrative varies from the lyrical to the philosophical, neither overly scholarly, nor flippant or disparaging. The reader encounters the geology, geography, history, butterflies, animals, birds, religious rites (both sanguineous as well as botanical) and folklore of this natural wonder. Explorers, naturalists and scholars who have devoted their lives to the study of Himalaya are mentioned in detail. The photographs are stunning, capturing enchanting landscapes, exquisite flora and bewitching fauna.
The book ranges from the dammed Ramganga in the foothills to the pristine and spiritual Mansarovar, from the verdant forests of Arunachal Pradesh to the stark icy deserts of Tibet. The disconnected chapters are welcome – one chapter may describe a Mahabharat performance in the heart of the Garhwal hills and the next jumps to the sylvan valleys of the Kanchenjunga, the next ascending to the highest meadow in the world in POK.
Incidentally, from the Lepidopterist family of Smetaceks in Bhimtal, one of the brothers was my classmate in school in Nainital way back in the seventies. Like the author, I too am endemic to the hills, being born of a Kumaoni mother and spending my childhood in the Kumaon and Garhwal hills.
The author is disconsolate with the rapid degradation of the Himalaya and its environs:

After seven days of the pristine forests of the Eastern Himalaya, we suddenly find ourselves in a smouldering wasteland of accumulated filth with mountains of refuse ignited by spontaneous combustion.
Perched on these huge piles of burning rubbish are hundreds of storks, stooped like solemn hunchbacks with bald heads and heavy beaks. Hanging under their throats is a loose pouch of skin that looks like a deflated balloon…. These flesh-eating birds feed on scraps of carrion brought here from butcher shops and road kills all over the city (Guwahati).
Children run about barefoot through streams of sewage and glaciers of broken glass, while grim birds look like creatures out of an apocalyptic image. Reminded of the giant man-eating birds of Sherdukpen folklore, I can’t help feeling that this is how our world may end, a grotesque vision of a polluted land, populated by carnivorous storks, who squawk and squabble over rotting skin, entrails and bones.

Later:

Mountains and rivers are revered and worshipped as maternal deities yet the same streams of holy water are defiled with untreated sewage from ‘Vedic Resorts’… Poorly constructed, multi-story hotels with sanctimonious names encroach the riverside in defiance of regulations governing ‘eco-sensitive zones’. Himalayan vistas that once inspired the faithful to give up material pursuits are now hidden behind garish hoardings announcing the chauvinistic discourses of self-aggrandizing holy men, while the eternal silence of the Himalaya echoes with digitized hymns set to a Bollywood beat.

His anguish and anger are obvious:

Piety and pollution seem to go hand in hand while godliness has become inherently grubby. Pilgrims who travel to the mountains, along with those who enable these spiritual journeys, believe that Himalayan destinations will cleanse their sins. In return, the mountains receive nothing but offerings of filth.

Sadly, no credit is given for the impeccable illustrations heading each chapter. Once again, just the gorgeous photos are a marvellous peek at the haunting beauty of the immutable Himalaya.
Finally, I'd like to add to the third man phenomenon experienced by mountain climbers. This is a hallucination due to a condition called Isolated High-Altitude Psychosis, distinct from High altitude cerebral oedema, and brought on by the complete deprivation of social contact and loneliness for prolonged periods.

[Biju Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very beautifully written book and the book brings out the rich natural history about the Himalaya. The author gives very nuanced history of various happenings and covers all countries where the Himalaya is situated.this is a must read for any nature lovers and especially for Himalaya lovers.

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alter stamps on India, on Hinduism and other indigenous faiths- specifically, Buddhism - and on the ancient indigenous culture, the ancient Sanskrit literature, and more, of India, with a usual heavy Western boot.

That he does so with a seemingly heavily sugar-coated pill, might make those inclined to do so themselves, that he's doing it softly, subtly, or not at all; that he's merely waking up a somnambulant people with a tap, a caress, with thus book that does offer much information. That the book is about the much beloved Himalaya thats object of a universal adoration, reverence and cherishing, is the heavy sugarcoating, with a sparking glaze that's the beautiful photographs, on cover and in the book.

But a boot it is, by a descendent of missionaries aligned with erstwhile colonial regimes. But for this, it'd be at least worth reading for a little information on each of the several topics he discusses.
***

"Forty kilometres from Mussoorie, near the historic village of Jagatgram, the Yamuna flows out of the Himalaya. On the eastern bank of the river lies the site of an Ashwamedha yagna, or horse sacrifice, by which the rulers of ancient India established their dominion over the land. Releasing a stallion and allowing it to wander at will, a king named Silavarman, who ruled during the third century CE, claimed all the territory his unsaddled steed traversed. Remains of brick altars where the horse was ultimately slaughtered and grilled are preserved by the Archeological Survey of India, amidst mango and litchi orchards, which have replaced the original jungles and grasslands that once grew here.

"Across the river, less than 5 kilometres to the west, stands the Ashokan edict at Kalsi carved on the face of a granite boulder. In Brahmi script the Mauryan emperor, also known as Devanampiya Piyadasi (He who loves all beings), proclaimed the Buddhist doctrine of non-violence and forbade the killing of animals. This edict was inscribed in 250 BCE and also includes the carving of an elephant. The antiquity and proximity of these two sites with their contradictory messages represents a long-standing tension between ritual sacrifice and compassion."

Yes, Alter is definitely attacking Hindu culture, although it's been over a millennium since Ashwamedha was performed.

One, why the horror about ritual killing of a horse in ancient India, when horses were used in Europe in battle until replaced by tanks - last was Polish cavalry facing German tanks in 1939 - and the horses thus used in wars weren't immortal, either?

Two, why so much horror about killing of a horse, which wasn't routine in India either, but then so much screaming and horror again about India’s cherishing cattle, instead of aping West and butchering milk givers and vital partners of humans in a tropical agrarian poor country?

Why this ludicrous 'horror, you once killed a horse from time to time' coupled with 'horror, you refuse to butcher cattle'? Or even further, 'horror, you feel bad about butchering cattle'?

Hypocrisy of insistence on lack of alternatives, dressed up as reason - and compassion, but only for horses, and insistence on 'none for cattle"?

Three, why hide the fact of how and why Ashok converted to Buddhism? India knows the history, of his seeing a battlefield with hundreds of thousands dead, after he'd waged a war to conquer a small democratic nation that refused to give up; this, seeing death of so many fue to his own insistence on conquest, turned him, from his - until then normal for him - wars, to become an emperor, to compete with those of history.

Nevertheless, he sent armies to spread Buddhism!

Thats 'compassion'?

Four, there were many other great emperors (of pre-abrahmic invasion era) of India, of which several are respected as righteous and great, some even revered, some deified, and more. India hardly recalled Ashok until West dug his history up. He couldn't have been that great, compared to others who are remembered.

Why the insistence by West on Ashok, obliterating all other names (oddly comparable to congress regime's almost obliterating all but two names of freedom struggle era)?

Is it because he was of only partly of Indian blood, or because he proceeded to convert - a la Rome - swaths of Asia, to a creed different from Hinduism?

Is this why West tomtoms Ashok? For a anti-India, anti-Hindu agenda of West?

Macaulay policy?
***

Alter proceeds with direct attack against Hinduism and against India.

"The prevailing idea that the Himalaya represent a sacred landscape may seem an appealing vision of environmental and spiritual harmony. Unfortunately, by investing mountains with mythical significance and scattering their slopes with religious symbols and stories, human beings have set in motion a cycle of ecological destruction. Natural phenomena like hot springs, caves or unusual rock formations, as well as the sources and confluences of rivers, become popular pilgrimage destinations that are often cluttered with rest houses, food stalls and parking lots, obscuring the beauty and isolation of these sites."

So he'd wish Hindus to stop revering Himalaya and any spots therein, to leave it alone for everyone other than Hindu or Indian?

Bring back era of rule of invaders?

"Religious tourism is one of the fastest growing and least regulated industries in the Himalaya. The circumambulation of Mount Kailas in Tibet is the most sacred itinerary for Buddhist and Hindu pilgrims but much of the route is littered with rubbish—discarded juice packets, biscuit wrappers, aerosol tins, sanitary pads, cigarette butts and plastic Pepsi bottles. Remote shrines at the headwaters of the Ganga attract countless busloads of devotees from the plains. These pilgrims pay obeisance to highland gods and goddesses who embody ideals of purity, beauty and immortality. Mountains and rivers are revered and worshipped as maternal deities yet the same streams of holy water are defiled with untreated sewage from ‘Vedic Resorts’ while many temple towns along the Ganga are no better than garbage dumps. Poorly constructed, multi-storey hotels with sanctimonious names encroach along the riverside in defiance of regulations governing ‘eco-sensitive zones’. Himalayan vistas that once inspired the faithful to give up material pursuits are now hidden behind garish hoardings announcing the chauvinistic discourses of self-aggrandizing holy men, while the eternal silence of the Himalaya echoes with digitized hymns set to a Bollywood beat."

While mountaineers from West defining Himalaya in mountaineering or deforestation of Himalaya for wars in Europe was what, exactly? Sacred?

Not to mention his ancestors enjoying huge summer bonfires in Kashmir, becausethere were firests, and no shortageof wood! This was novelty enough to write home to US, so obviously it wasn't routine necessity, but something not affordable in US, despite greater need in US winters of subzero Fahrenheit.

In short, West wasn't merely using India for free labour, but selling her forests cheap. Or looting them for free?!!!

"Piety and pollution seem to go hand in hand while godliness has become inherently grubby. Pilgrims who travel to the mountains, along with those who enable these spiritual journeys, believe that Himalayan destinations will cleanse their sins. In return, the mountains receive nothing but offerings of filth. This depressing litany of devastation is the direct result of religious metaphors projected onto the landscape. It also reflects human indifference, wastefulness and greed as well as the wilful exploitation of nature’s generous yet limited bounty. Bad planning, poor management and a lack of spiritual and political integrity have depleted natural resources and reduced many areas of the mountains to a desperate, untenable state."

Whereas television preachers of US for decades squeezing those gullible, is godly? Or its just that badmouthing India is now a vital agenda, but Jerry Falwell et al are - what?

Sacrosanct?
***

"While many Himalayan people trace their lineage to Tibet an even larger number came up into the mountains from the plains of North India. In Nepal, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh most villages are populated by Hindus who are divided into innumerable clans and castes, each with their own stories of origin and migration. Even those people who have lived here for so many generations they cannot remember when or how their ancestors first arrived, acknowledge that they must have come from somewhere else."

Within India and her neighbourhood, such migrations aren't unusual, and if visiting back isn't impossible, it's not a loss but a gradual acclimatisation. This isn't limited to residents of Himalaya.

Nor is there any reason to assume that every Hindu living in Himalaya is from somewhere else. Even Shiva and Parvati were not first of the Hindu culture residents of Himalaya, far from it.

"This sense of displacement is embedded in the cultural memory of Himalayan society and emerges in the beliefs, rituals and stories that animate both everyday life and extraordinary events. Though not always apparent or overtly expressed, an underlying sense of exile punctuates many Himalayan narratives, particularly those that recall and retell the great epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Both these texts contain core episodes in which the heroes are banished to the forests and hills. Hindus in the Himalaya, particularly those living within the watershed of the Ganga, identify closely with these myths of abandoned homelands. Both a real and imagined sense of separation and isolation, with all its traumatic anxieties and uprooted defiance, infuses the feudal hierarchies that govern village society."

There they go again, belittling the great epics!

India loves and cherishes them, whether or not there's any loss of home involved. Few have wives kidnapped post arrival of British, but that hasn't reduced India's love of Ramayana, nor was it prior to that because men fought invaders for bringing wives back.

By logic of Alter one should deduce that West loved and cherished Picasso because their faces looked like his paintings!

Or was that there a not too subtle implication there of a presumption that Himalaya belongs elsewhere, India must be only below?

Fie, Alter! How false can West get!

Or is he again not too subtly countering the fact that pakis have stuffed pok with Punjabis and similarly Baluchistan with others, just as China has done with Tibet, by saying that Hindus don't belong to Himalaya? Again, that's fraudulent propaganda.

Another factor he doesn't realise about having said the above is far reaching implications of his statement that Hindus who settled in Himalaya coming from other regions of India have the sense of another home, a homeland of origin.

For centuries now, West has propagated an outright lie about Arya having originated elsewhere and arrived in India on about 1500 BCE or thereabouts, as invaders or as migrants. This theory was propagated with two aims - one, to force Hindus of North to feel disempowered regarding being original inhabitants, vis-a-vis invaders of last millennium and a half, and their barbaric conduct; and two, divide the nation along North versus South, apart from all other divisions that British insisted existed.

But there's no memory in the psyche, nor in the Sanskrit literature that reaches deep in ancient past, far beyond appearance of Himalaya rising from the ocean, even beyond the time when there was an ocean separating India from Asia. Surely a culture that has legends recording evolution, and rising of Himalaya from ocean that vanished to North of India, would not simply wipe out a homeland elsewhere- if there had, ever, been one?

On the other hand, memories of India are everywhere in the same literature, strewn with names. And what's more, various records have been proven true, contradicting West's assertion that it was all imaginary, mythical.

On one hand, story about Dwaraka drowning exists as part of Mahabharata; ocean archeological surveys show existence thereof.

On the other, now there's better software in West, the astronomical observations about a planetary grouping, recording end of Mahabharata and beginning of Kaliyuga, has been found to exist at least once in past, circa 3,100 BCE. That contradicts flatly the Western assertion and assumptions about India's ancient Sanskrit literature being only mythology.

And there was no migration of Arya into India, but the same literature shows there was migration - from India, towards North-West, not only into Afghanistan or Iran, but further.

Yet, Alter speaks repeatedly about Arya having 'arrived'!

Ignorance combined with racism forces arrogance rock solid freeze in psyche doesn't it!
***

When in questionable area, use 'some' to include all in guilt.

"Collared owlets (Glaucidium brodiei), also called pygmy owlets, are crepuscular hunters, most active at dawn and dusk. No more than 15 centimetres tall, their brown plumage has a barred pattern like the rough weave on a tweed jacket that complements a professorial gaze. In the west, owls are considered wise while in India they are thought of as foolish and bad luck. Unfortunately, human associations and superstitions have fatal implications for collared owlets. In the weeks leading up to Diwali, villagers near Mussoorie catch different species of owls and surreptitiously sell them for sacrifice. In Hindu mythology, owls are the sacred vehicle, or vahana, of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, who is worshipped on Diwali. By killing an owl, some devotees believe they can ensure that the goddess, and any prosperity she bestows, remains in their home. A second version of the myth recounts that Lakshmi has an inauspicious twin sister, Alakshmi, who takes the form of an owl and deprives us of riches. By killing these birds, a small, misguided minority of ardent believers is convinced that they can hold onto their wealth."

Anyone rational - with slightest familiarity with india - would know that here the word 'some' is trickster and convenient blaming of the whole, and the phrase 'some devotees' is used wrongly here, deliberately, albeit seemingly innoccuously.

While the parts about worship of the Goddess of Wealth on Amavasya, no-moon day and night, of Diwali is routine throughout most (but not all) of India, and while it's not only India but in fact the whole world that worships wealth, only without respect enough to deity it, it's a convenient fact to attach it to killing of owls to make India seem irrational.

The association of owl as vehicle of the Goddess of Wealth is correct, as is the sub-story about the sister; but most of those who are worshippers of Lakshmi on Diwali are vegetarian, and wouldn't kill creatures above insects or pests, due more to disgust for the act than compassion.

A couple of facts here, Wealth isn't only money in context of the Goddess of Wealth, but encompasses Integral Wealth, of whole bring and more.

And the term 'devotees' is incorrect because few worship Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, with a sincere focused devotion as such; mostly, it's raised a notch above the world outside India in recognition, and in some cases, routine everyday worship at home, more so at business, instead of only on one day of the year. But one would be at sea if one were to attempt to find a temple devoted to her.

Obviously, killing of owls this one day has other considerations, other necessities behind it, of everyday life, of need to reduce their numbers. It might be associated with well being, but isn't a universal practice through India, as it would be if due to faith or culture or creed.

So is Alter lying deliberately, when he says -

'By killing these birds, a small, misguided minority of ardent believers is convinced that they can hold onto their wealth'

- all the while knowing fully well that this culling of owls is only excused in name of a least blood related Goddess of India, is anybody's guess. But already the process of hurting Hinduism by 'a thousand cuts', objecting to one festival here and another there in their specific characters, has gone on for decades.

Is this new missionary agenda, attempting to reduce Hinduism to a variety of church creed, before toppling over the skeleton then left?
***

"From its perch in the tree, the collared owlet looked down at me accusingly as if I were responsible for this cruel and unjust curse. While the story of a goddess borne aloft on the wings of an owl may have an innocent, beguiling quality, it has been perverted from an allegory of benevolence into a tale of greed. In this way, natural history is often misinterpreted and distorted, through myths and fables that reach back thousands of years. As these stories are retold and re-enacted, the relationship between human beings and other species often becomes increasingly divisive and fraught with sanctified antipathies."

That makes it clear. He's not attacking killing of owls, which few might protest - precisely those who fo it because it's necessary and vital for their life and environment. He knows this.

Alter is attacking mainstream Hinduism when he says

" ... While the story of a goddess borne aloft on the wings of an owl may have an innocent, beguiling quality, it has been perverted from an allegory of benevolence into a tale of greed. In this way, natural history is often misinterpreted and distorted, through myths and fables that reach back thousands of years. As these stories are retold and re-enacted, the relationship between human beings and other species often becomes increasingly divisive and fraught with sanctified antipathies ... "

He's directly attacking what he calls myths and fables, because they are of Hinduism and its safe to call them a man-made lie, unlike, say, fables of a fellow Abrahamic faith which, when questioned, bring down fatwa and demands with chores promised to beheaders.

He knows fully well, that what he calls myth and fable, is accepted by any Hindu who isn't of the variety that's on reality an atheist but only officially Hindu for a convenience; yet few, despite belief, indulge in this killing of owls. Knowing this, nevertheless he isn't attacking the killing per se, but the core of Hinduism. He's attacking 'myths and fables', festival of Diwali, core beliefs of Hinduism, Hinduism itself, beginningwith using the term 'myths and fables' in the first place, before proceeding to laying blame therein.

Idea is to convert India, a final frontier of non-abrahmic culture, living since antiquity in continuity, preserving its treasures of knowledge, of antiquity and since, everything that wasn't affected by the barbaric Abrahamic invaders ....

[Dharmabum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing the natural history of a mountain range spanning 2500 km is no mean job. And who better to so it, than someone who is raised in the lap of the mountains itself? Stephen Alter does a terrific job in this magnum opus, starting with the origins, covering the geography and geology. He then goes on to cover a wide variety of themes including the flora, fauna, people and cultures of the Himalayan ranges. The book is filled with a mind-boggling array of facts and made me sit in awe of the author's awareness of the subject. The narrative is also sprinkled with interesting personal anecdotes, which don't seem intrusive, rather provide a rather welcome interlude from time to time. A minor irritant for me, was the somewhat superficial understanding of culture & religion but I'll pardon the author for this lapse because it sure is a complicated theme and finding authentic sources & interpretations may not be easy. All in all, this is a book that I would keep, and go back to from time to time to simply soak the splendour of one of the most magnificent mountains in the world.

[Gaurav · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Nanga Parbat in the west to Kanchenjunga in the east, this book details the entire breadth of what makes Himalaya one of the greatest mountain range in lore and in real-life. Kudos to the author for sticking to the correct pronunciation ('Him-aalay', Him-snow and aalay-abode) of the range, instead of westernising and removing the meaning with Hima-lay-aas. The narrative intertwines the natural history, flora and fauna, glaciers and rivers, regional myths and feeble quests of hairless bi-peds to summit these into a rich tapestry of stories.
Good book to take with you on a trip to the north while sipping warm butter tea comforting you while you explore the higher reaches in detail.

[Sujith Ravindran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always looked at mountains with awe. Especially the great Himalayas. Read many books about it. All are inspiring and lovely. But, this one was majestic. Captures all the wilderness and complexities of these beautiful mountains.

Never been to any of these mountains. It is said that if you desperately desire something, nature conspires. Waiting for that conspiracy to happen soon.

It was a pleasure to read this book. Beautiful language. Stunning photographs. Recommended to all alpine lovers.

[Gurbaksh13 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s always a pleasure to read about the Himalayas. Having spent a fair amount of time in the mountains, reading such a well written book makes one nostalgic. The authors command over the language is good

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quando penso no Himalaia, é sempre as montanhas, os picos mais altos, que vêm na minha mente. E foi pensando nisso que comecei a ler esse livro. Só que o Himalaia é enorme, existe muito mais que o Everest, o K2 e outros tantos picos. E é isso o que o autor mostra nesse livro.
A parte mais interessante para mim foi sobre as grandes expedições de montanhismo. Como o livro é bem abrangente, o autor não se detém tanto quanto eu gostaria nesse aspecto, mas deixou dicas de livros sobre o assunto que certamente irei buscar.
O livro é muito bem escrito, com belas passagens e ótimas descrições das paisagens. Achei interessante como o autor usa os diferentes assuntos para falar das diversas lendas relacionadas às pedras, à água, aos animais. Não sendo um geólogo, talvez ele não quisesse entrar muito em detalhe sobre a formação geológica do Himalaia, o que me deixou com a impressão de que faltou aprofundamento não só nessa primeira parte do livro, mas também nos outros capítulos.
Ótima leitura, só acho que peca por tentar ser o mais abrangente possível, em detrimento ao aprofundamento nos temas de cada um dos oitos capítulos.