Eastern Himalayas

Sbas yul gyi dkar chags  ‘khrul med bshugs so  (The unmistaken register of the hidden land,  hereafter referred to as  URHL)  is a  fascinating example of  Tibetan  Buddhist sacred landscape literature.  It describes the minor sbas yul of  Sbas lcags shing ri  (Secret  Iron  Wood  Mountain,  hereafter referred to as  Pachakshiri)  located in the environs of  Mechuka in  Arunachal  Pradesh,  India.1  This paper examines excerpts of a  dkar chag,  or catalog,  composed as a  dialogue between the imperial  Tibetan  Buddhist figures  Ye shes mtsho rgyal and Padmasambhava. In it, they discuss the sbas yul of Sbas lcags shing ri located in the  Mechuka  (Sman chu ka)  valley in the  Eastern  Himalayan region of  Arunachal Pradesh, India. It explores a section of the dialogue in which Ye shes mtsho rgyal asks Padmasambhava, “How is this sacred place arrayed?” His response describes the establishment of this sbas yul via a quadruplicate process of tantric enactment. The boundaries are set and maintained via the four enlightened activities (phrin las rnam bzhi), of pacification (zhi), increase (rgyas), magnetism (dbang), and wrath (drag). The study examines sacred landscape by considering the progressive formation of this sbas yul via these four enlightened actions and how each functions as geomantic referents for deep levels of embodied meditative accomplishment. Examining this framework expands our understanding of  Buddhist tantric landscape beyond the paradigms of subjugation and suppression.  This quartet of actualizing engagements is of equal significance in the formation and maintenance of a wholly transformed tantric ritual domain.

This article examines how Ladakhi songs represent cultural self-images through associated musical, textual, and visual tropes. Many songs of the past, both from the old royal house and the rural Buddhist populations, reflect the socio-political structure of Ladakhi society. Although some songs, past and present, reflect a pan-Tibetan identity, a distinct Ladakhi identity is nevertheless consistently asserted. Situated on the caravan routes between India, Tibet, China, and Central Asia, Ladakhi culture developed distinctive hybrid characteristics, including in its musical styles. The article discusses this tradition of hybridity from the 17th Century to the present day. Ladakhi music has moved into modern media space, portrayed through scholarly works, concerts, mass media, and the internet. The article examines various contemporary representations of “tradition” and ethnic identity in both traditional and popular music. Looking at Ladakhi popular music, we see further hybridity base...

Producing Himalayan Darjeeling: Mobile People
and Mountain Encounters/Jayeeta Sharma, University of Toronto, 2016

This article explores the social production
of Darjeeling through the social and cultural
encounters that helped transform a mountain
health resort for colonial functionaries
into a vibrant Himalayan hub for vernacular
modernity and local cosmopolitanism. While
Darjeeling’s high-altitude setting inextricably
linked it to the intense exploitation of subaltern
bodies, it evolved as a dynamic urban locality
that offered mobile individuals and groups
the opportunity to seek out new livelihoods
and realize modernistic aspirations in a
transcultural setting.

Keywords: Darjeeling, hill-station, colonial, Himalayan, mobile,
cosmopolitan, mountain.

Presented at the First Regional Consultation on Himalayan Sustainable Development Forum held at Dehradun, Uttarakhand on August 4, 2015 sharing the law, policy, and institutional recommendation for effective environmental governance of the entire IHR with a special focus on climate change adaptation.

The Northeastern highlands are geographically and culturally positioned within Zomia topography. The term Zomia, which is more of a metaphor, refers to the highlands from upland North East India to highlands of Vietnam. Representing strong ethnic, cultural and ecological parallels these highlands, as per Zomia theory, constitute a region of refuge'' which is inhabited by lawless /ungoverned 'tribes'. This critique, using an ethnographic case study, reassesses and points to certain basic rupture and shortcomings in the Zomia theory. Author argues that the highlanders undeniably function in accordance with their customary laws and through self –governing institutions, which in contemporary times have the backing of the modern state, though disastrously.

In the ancient period Bengal used to be a seat of Buddhism. The archaeological ruins and the accounts of the foreign travelers bear testimony to the expansion and richness of this heritage in ancient Bengal. Yet it was not before long that the religion degenerated and became almost extinct. There was hardly any trace of Buddhist practices and heritage in the medieval period when Bengal was ruled by Muslim rulers. There has been a revival and resurgence of Buddhism in modern period almost all over India and it has found its reflection in Bengal as well.
The Buddhists of Bengal are few in number yet the Buddhism they practice is not uniform and represent both the Hinayana and Mahayana schools of thought. Northern Buddhism as it had developed in Tibet is followed by the Tibeto Mongoloid population of Darjeeling, the northern district of Bengal . Even though Bengal had connections with Tibet in the ancient period, the Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism that the people of the this region practice was introduced from Tibet itself in the early modern period  through certain particular groups of people who migrated either from Tibet or the other two Himalayan kingdoms of Bhutan and Sikkim. In contrast, the Bengalis who practice this religion in the plains of Bengal are almost universally Baruas  who claim to be the original descendants of the ancient Buddhists of India.
Existence of these different schools  are the legacy of the different phases of history of the region and that of the religion itself. The variations in rituals and practices add to the cultural diversity of the state and highlight the different shades in the practice of the religion itself.
‘Buddhism’ survives in Bengal in another form. Buddha’s philosophy has stirred and inspired  the psyche of the Bengali intellectuals irrespective of the religion they actually professed. Even this has been possible due to some historical developments in the colonial period. Interest in  ‘Buddhism’ has unleashed a plethora  of literature on life and message of Buddha . Foremost among those writers was Rabindranath Tagore ..
There may not be many practicing Buddhists in modern  Bengal but there is a deep rooted  respect for “Buddhism” in Bengali psyche- not for any particular sect or school of the religion but for what Buddhadeva  had originally preached and proved with his life.

The paper presents a general discussion on the various natural and human induced environmental insecurities that often challenges human security in Nepal in general an Eastern Nepal in particular. Though small in size, Nepal is a country with geological, topographical and climate diversities that makes the country favourable to several natural challenges. These challenges range from earthquake to various type of geomorphic processes such as mass wasting and floods. The increase in population and the changes in its distribution also meant that the country is now faced with a new set of natural disaster risks. The UNDP lists earthquake, floods, flashfloods, landslides and drought as the major natural challenges for the country as a whole. While discussing these environmental challenges, a critical appreciation of the literature in the context of the region has been attempted and their present relevance also examined.

Among the Rai of Eastern Nepal, the recitations pronounced during shamanic rituals include countless references to the natural and sacred topography of the landscape and to aspects of the natural habitat inhabited by the performers. For every Rai group, often even for every clan of it, these references are “localized” to a great extent and therefore every social entity has its own way of being “rooted” in their natural and sacred environment. In a Post-Doc project by the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) and the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies of the University of Vienna, I explore these connections in great detail with a focus on the Dumi Rai, an ethnic group settling in the northern parts of Khotang district in Eastern Nepal. By re-travelling the pronounced ritual journeys together with the shamans and knowledgeable elders within the real topography, these mental or “recitational” travels are mapped onto the real world. Using GPS technology and different means of multimedia documentation of the visited places and the related ritual texts, a wide array of information is gathered in a database that will eventually be worked into different kinds of multimedia publications. By complementing the data collected in the rural areas of Eastern Nepal with findings gathered among the diaspora Rai communities in other parts of Nepal and foreign countries, the influence of such concepts onto the understanding of the Rai’s own ethnic identity can be investigated. This experimental project was still underway at the time the paper was given in 2012 and some of its preliminary findings, methods and possible uses were discussed.

Sikkim is primarily a rural and agricultural economy, where over 60 % of its population is directly engaged in agriculture. Principal food crops cultured in the region include maize, paddy, barley, millet, wheat, buck wheat, beans etc. Important cash crops are cardamom, ginger, potato, soybean, fruit crops and vegetables etc. Large cardamom is raised on commercial basis and is exported both within and outside the country. In fact, Sikkim has the largest area and the highest production of large cardamom in India. It is a foreign exchange earner crop of Sikkim. The state has limited industrial potential due to its geologic and geomorphic constraints. Large cardamom farming has been suffering from decline in production and gradual drying and subsequent death of the plant in the last 1–1.5 decades.
There has been a steady decline in the yield of large cardamom over the years. One of the important factors of declining yield is ascribed to old age of cardamom bushes. A section of the policy makers and farmers also believe that monoculture of cardamom plants in the same fields for generations, is perhaps, an added cause of declining productivity of the cardamom. However, a further more important and serious factor in this regard has been the destruction of cardamom orchards by viral diseases in recent years. There are increasing warnings from the scientists, policy makers and people on field that change in temperature and rainfall pattern in the region over last many years could be the potential factors of the disease spreading viruses and subsequent destruction and declining productivity of large cardamom plantations across Sikkim.

Studies of ethnic minority peoples in Asia have long focussed on the relations between ethnic minority communities and the modern state and on the role of development in shaping these relations. This paper is concerned with how ethnic minorities respond to the state-led development. While there are numerous studies focussing on the collective agency of ethnic minorities opposing development projects, few studies consider the agency of pro-development actors. Pro-development actors are usually dismissed as co-opted, manipulated, inauthentic, or elite-driven, yet they can offer crucial insights into understanding state–ethnic minority relations and particularly intra-ethnic minority relations. This paper concentrates on pro-dam actors from the Lepcha minority in the Indian state of Sikkim to make four interlinked arguments. First, examining pro-development actors breaks the homogenous view of state–ethnic minority relations and shifts the focus to intra-ethnic relationships. Second, collective agency of ethnic minorities is not fixed in a particular relationship with the state nor does it have a particular position on development. Third, the long-term experience of development is vital in understanding how ethnic minorities manoeuvre and alter their position on contentious projects. Lastly, analysis of pro-development actors creates major dilemmas for researchers which are not easily overcome.

Background: Traditional knowledge on ethnomedicinal plant is slowly eroding. The exploration, identification and documentation on utilization of ethnobotanic resources are essential for restoration and preservation of ethnomedicinal knowledge about the plants and conservation of these species for greater interest of human society. Methods: The study was conducted at fringe areas of Chilapatta Reserve Forest in the foothills of the eastern sub-Himalayan mountain belts of West Bengal, India, from December 2014 to May 2016. Purposive sampling method was used for selection of area. From this area which is inhabited by aboriginal community of Indo-Mongoloid origin, 400 respondents including traditional medicinal practitioners were selected randomly for personal interview schedule through open-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire covered aspects like plant species used as ethnomedicines, plant parts used, procedure for dosage and therapy.

— Numerous " indigenous " and " traditional " land-use systems that exist in different parts of the world have not yet been properly documented. Considering that many agroforestry systems of today have evolved from such systems, it is important to understand the wisdom of the indigenous communities that have continually been experimenting in their own ways to improve and adapt them for their livelihood. The Apatani eco-cultural landscape in Ziro Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India signifies an excellent example of such a uniquely distinct natural resource management practice. This agroforestry system developed over the years by innovative efforts involves growing bamboo (Phyllostachys bambusoides Siebold & Zucc.) or pine (Pinus wallichiana A.B. Jacks.) or a mixture of both on their fields. The Apatani is the only tribes in the states that manages such a unique land-use system and are highly conscious of maintaining their heritage and commitment to safeguarding nature and natural resources. By enhancing livelihood security and quality of life, conserving ecosystems, and fostering economic growth, this farmer-developed indigenous agroforestry system stands out as an example of ecosystem protection and natural-resource conservation in Arunachal Pradesh where resource-depleting shifting cultivation is still the mainstay of livelihood. Scientific analyses of the experience gained from this system – could offer lessons of valuable traditional ecological knowledge, which when properly assimilated could be useful in the design of sustainable agroforestry land-use systems.

The recent episodes of forest res in Brazil and Australia of 2019 are tragic reminders of the hazards of forest re. Globally incidents of forest re events are on the rise due to human encroachment into the wilderness and climate change. Sikkim with a forest cover of more than 47%, suffers seasonal instances of frequent forest re during the dry winter months. To address this issue, a GIS-aided and MaxEnt machine learning-based forest re prediction map has been prepared using a forest inventory database and maps of environmental features. The study indicates that amongst the environmental features, climatic conditions and proximity to roads are the major determinants of forest res. Model validation criteria like ROC curve, correlation coefficient, and Cohen’s Kappa show a good predictive ability (AUC = 0.95, COR = 0.81, κ = 0.78). The outcomes of this study in the form of a forest re prediction map can aid the stakeholders of the forest in taking informed mitigation measures.

This article explores the social production
of Darjeeling through the social and cultural
encounters that helped transform a mountain
health resort for colonial functionaries
into a vibrant Himalayan hub for vernacular
modernity and local cosmopolitanism. While
Darjeeling’s high-altitude setting inextricably
linked it to the intense exploitation of subaltern
bodies, it evolved as a dynamic urban locality
that offered mobile individuals and groups
the opportunity to seek out new livelihoods
and realize modernistic aspirations in a
transcultural setting.

Keywords: Darjeeling, hill-station, colonial, Himalayan, mobile,
cosmopolitan, mountain.

Arunachal Pradesh with high ethnic and cultural diversity is the part of eastern Indian Himalaya. Apatani, Nocte and Wancho are among the major tribes of Arunachal Pradesh which are known for their remarkable indigenous knowledge on harvesting bio-resources, ecosystem conservation and management of natural resources which they have assimilated over centuries through experiments. For instance, the Apatanis are well known for their distinct traditional land use practices including innovative integrated farming techniques such as paddy-cum-fish and bamboo-cum-pine farming. On the other hand, the 'Nocte' and 'Wancho' have brilliantly converted their hostile undulating hilly terrains into beautiful landscape for farming. In all, land is divided mainly into cultivated land, settlement area and forest cover signifying the ecological equilibrium and their way of harnessing bio-resources and its conservation is generally not only confined to forestry but also to agriculture with high diversity of vegetables and crop plants. In this regard, potential role played by the indigenous knowledge system of these tribes and sociocultural values in up-liftment of the rural economy are highly commendable.

This collaborative study investigates the hill station of Kalimpong and the larger Eastern Himalayan borderlands as a paradigmatic case of a " contact zone. " In the colonial and early post-colonial era, this space enabled a variety of encounters: between (British) India, Tibet, and China, but also Nepal and Bhutan; between Christian mission and Himalayan religions; between global flows of money and information and local markets and practices. Using a plethora of local and global historical sources, the contributing essays follow the pathways of people from diverse cultural backgrounds and investigate the new forms of knowledge and practice that resulted from their encounters and their shifting power relations. The volume provides not only a nuanced historiography of Kalimpong and its adjacent areas, but also a conceptual model for studying transcultural processes in borderland spaces and their colonial and post-colonial dynamics.

The labourers are the pillars of every industry. In fact, tea plantation is a labour-intensive
industry in which, most of the work is done manually by the labourers. At the same time,
it largely depends on cheap labour procured from the migrant population, however, such
process entails structural transformations in the economy and society enabling the
evolution of waged labour culture guided by the capitalist industrial model. Such
arrangements facilitate the creation of a class who works in the plantation in lieu of wage
i.e., the coolies. The coolies in a general sense, are a well-researched topic in academia.
However, tea plantation workers of Darjeeling with different anecdotal experiences cannot
be homogenised with those of other plantation industries and the concerned topic requires
separate analysis. Thus, this paper intends to trace the historical processes in the making
of coolies in tea plantations and their consequences of Darjeeling using different
methodological tools.

Kaul, Nitasha (2021) “Beyond India and China: Bhutan as a Small State in International Relations”, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, pp.1-41 https://doi.org/10.1093/irap/lcab010

This article makes a novel contribution to the literature on Bhutan's International Relations (IR) by shifting the focus away from an exclusively India-China framing. First, it points out how small states are increasingly salient but under-studied in IR and how non-European non-island states like Bhutan are even more so, and why we gain by addressing this. Second, it shows how the conventional study of Bhutan has solely focused on its friendship with India and the threat to it/this from China, and why it is important that these conventional narratives be critically examined. In doing so, we perceive the endogenous drivers of Bhutan's foreign policies, for instance via Bhutan's stance on the Doklam issue. Third, going beyond the three typical determinants (economic factors, bilateral relations with India, and threats from China), the article provides two additional axes of understanding Bhutan's foreign policies-bridging of attributional distances and learning from experience.

Background: Traditional knowledge on ethnomedicinal plant is slowly eroding. The exploration, identification and documentation on utilization of ethnobotanic resources are essential for restoration and preservation of ethnomedicinal knowledge about the plants and conservation of these species for greater interest of human society. Methods: The study was conducted at fringe areas of Chilapatta Reserve Forest in the foothills of the eastern sub-Himalayan mountain belts of West Bengal, India, from December 2014 to May 2016. Purposive sampling method was used for selection of area. From this area which is inhabited by aboriginal community of Indo-Mongoloid origin, 400 respondents including traditional medicinal practitioners were selected randomly for personal interview schedule through open-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire covered aspects like plant species used as ethnomedicines, plant parts used, procedure for dosage and therapy. Results: A total number of 140 ethnomedicinal species was documented, in which the tree species (55) dominated the lists followed by herbs (39) and shrubs (30). Among these total planted species used for ethnomedicinal purposes, 52 species were planted, 62 species growing wild or collected from the forest for use and 26 species were both wild and planted. The present study documented 61 more planted species as compared to 17 planted species documented in an ethnomedicinal study a decade ago. The documented species were used to treat 58 human diseases/ailments including nine species used to eight diseases/ailments of domestic animals. Stomach-related problems were treated by maximum number of plants (40 species) followed by cuts and wounds with 27 plant species and least with one species each for 17 diseases or ailments. Maximum number of 12 diseases/ailments was cured by Melia azedarach followed by Centella asiatica and Rauvolfia serpentina which were used to cure 11 diseases/ailments each. Conclusions: The list of 140 plant species indicates that the Chilapatta Reserve Forest and its fringe areas are rich in biodiversity of ethnobotanical plant species. Rauvolfia serpentina were the most valuable species in terms of its maximal use with higher use value. The documentation of 78 species maintained in the home gardens indicates the community consciousness on the conservation values of these ethnobotanical species. The communities should be encouraged with improved cultivation techniques of commercially viable ethnobotanical species through capacity building, timely policy intervention along with strong market linkage. This will ensure income generation and livelihood improvement and ultimate conservation of these species.

Interspiritual ritual participation as essential to everyday spirituality is a rewarding investment in decoding interreligious dialogue. At the current juncture in Indian social-religious history when a monolithic understanding of 'religion' is defining social life at macro levels, it is an urgent need to explore 'indigenous religion paradigm' (Maarif 2019) to understand indigenous ritual aesthetics at micro levels. In the topographical and environmental context of mountain life in Eastern Himalayas in India, the paradigm of indigenous ritual geography is a valid model for understanding how transitions between and across religious/ sectarian boundaries take place through shared yet distinct cosmologies, overlapping cultural symbolism and most importantly, mutually shared and reciprocal participation of human and non-human actors in religious rituals. Through a detailed ethnographic decoding of the Fulpātī ritual in eastern Himalayas, this paper aims to illustrate how exploring the ecoaesthetics of ritual theatre is a powerful way for mapping ecopsychological response to interreligious engagement.

Scholarly discourses involving the peripheral regions often look through the binary lenses of ‘identity’ and ‘development’, which are then ascribed as the root causes, leading to the emergence of political movements in these regions. Analogies emanating from such visions entrapped solely on development deficit fall short in dealing with the interplay and intersections of history, geography and politics related to such regions. The analysis concerning the Gorkhaland Movement also seems to be trapped within such an explanatory binary of ‘identity’ and ‘development’. This article attempts to situate the hills of Darjeeling, where the movement is located, into a less discussed framework of geopolitics that not only politicizes the geographies of the Eastern Himalayas but also historicizes the communities and their aspirations as a response to the manoeuvrings by the concerned states. Within such a framework, we shall also discuss how the colonial geopolitics of migration, henceforth, has been succinctly carried forward by the post-colonial state in shaping its notions related to the hills of Darjeeling.

This is to certify that Mr. Nyima Drojee Bhotia has completed the Research work entitled "Moving in, moving up, moving out: Migration study of Walungnga, Upper Tamor, Eastern Nepal: An Anthropological Study of a Historically Trans-Himalayan Community of Eastern Nepal" under my supervision and guidance. I therefore, recommend this thesis for approval and acceptance.

Traditional knowledge on ethnomedicinal plant is slowly eroding. The exploration, identification and documentation on utilization of ethnobotanic resources are essential for restoration and preservation of ethnomedicinal knowledge about the plants and conservation of these species for greater interest of human society. The study was conducted at fringe areas of Chilapatta Reserve Forest in the foothills of the eastern sub-Himalayan mountain belts of West Bengal, India, from December 2014 to May 2016. Purposive sampling method was used for selection of area. From this area which is inhabited by aboriginal community of Indo-Mongoloid origin, 400 respondents including traditional medicinal practitioners were selected randomly for personal interview schedule through open-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire covered aspects like plant species used as ethnomedicines, plant parts used, procedure for dosage and therapy. A total number of 140 ethnomedicinal species was documented, in which...

1. (no abstract for Intro) 2. This article examines experiences of the uncanny within woodlands of Southern England among walkers who have impaired vision. It proposes that uncanny experiences disrupt assumptions that humans actively perceive a passive landscape by approaching the landscape as an actant provoking uncanny experiences that shift senses of self–landscape relations. Optical tropes have pervaded notions of both the uncanny and conceptualizations of self–landscape relations in contemporary European intellectual thought. Here, attention to the case study of blindness reconfigures these understandings and reveals the slippery nexus of the visible and the invisible in uncanny experiences. Motifs of vision are refracted in the experiences of “phantom vision” through which people who have noncongenitally impaired vision might “see” in their “mind’s eye.” The palpable, felt, multisensorial senses of the uncanny are revealed with the presences of trees and visceral nature of darkness. Uncanny landscapes are characterized by presences, the unknown, and disjunctures, in which notions of familiarity and strangeness, known and unknown, collide

The Rufous-necked Hornbill Aceros nipalensis is a globally threatened species with limited information available on its natural history and ecology across its range in South- and South-east Asia. Within India, it is among the most endangered and one of the least studied hornbill species. We report densities of the Rufous-necked Hornbill at a subtropical montane forest site in western Arunachal Pradesh. The estimated densities were found to be fairly high (6.12 birds/km2) and similar to estimates from other sites in India. We characterised the vegetation composition, overall tree density and food plant density in the subtropical forest habitat.

This paper uses the life trajectory of a particularly well-connected, though not commonly known Tibetan scholar to investigate the complex entanglements of global interests in Tibetan culture and the Buddhist religion with their local representatives in the Eastern Himalayas. Originally from Lhasa, Rindzin Wangpo (1920–1985) became a long-term resident of Kalimpong, where, in terms of knowledge production, he acted as a crucial link between Tibet and the world beyond it, working as a research assistant to many Western scholars, but also as an assistant to Dorje Tharchin (1890–1976) whose Tibetan-language newspaper Mélong provided Tibetans with access to global events. I will argue that this special position also helped shape his personal life, resulting in his reconsideration of his cultural background and a new orientation as a Buddhist that can be brought to light by examining his own writings on Buddhism and Tibetan culture.

This article examines how Ladakhi songs represent cultural self-images through associated musical, textual, and visual tropes. Many songs of the past, both from the old royal house and the rural Buddhist populations, reflect the socio-political structure of Ladakhi society. Although some songs, past and present, reflect a pan-Tibetan identity, a distinct Ladakhi identity is nevertheless consistently asserted. Situated on the caravan routes between India, Tibet, China, and Central Asia, Ladakhi culture developed distinctive hybrid characteristics, including in its musical styles. The article discusses this tradition of hybridity from the 17th Century to the present day. Ladakhi music has moved into modern media space, portrayed through scholarly works, concerts, mass media, and the internet. The article examines various contemporary representations of “tradition” and ethnic identity in both traditional and popular music. Looking at Ladakhi popular music, we see further hybridity base...