History and Culture of the Himalaya (3 Vols-Set)

Contents: Vol. I. Historical Prospectives: Introduction. 1. Distribution of ancient communities in the Himalaya. 2. History: Kangra. 3. Historical sketch. 4. Ranas and Thakurs of the Western Himalaya. 5. Myth, history and man. 6. Historical background of Uttarakhand. 7. The history of Kumaon. 8. Facts about Nepal. 9. The kingdom of Nepal. 10. The history of Nepal. 11. History of Sikkim and its rulers. 12. The history of Tibet. 13. Legends, religion and history of Bhutan. 14. What happened to the McMahon Line? 15. McMahon Line: conference at Shimla. 16. McMahon Line: Assam Himalayan Crisis 1910-11. Index.

Vol. II. Demography and Human Geography: Introduction. 1. People, communities and languages. 2. The ancient Himalayan tribes. 3. The people. 4. The people of Kullu. 5. The people of Lahaul and Spiti. 6. Demographic profile of Uttaranchal. 7. Physical aspect of the people. 8. Kinship and social organization. 9. Polyandrous castes--a brief ethnographic survey. 10. The people of Sikkim. 11. The country and the people of Bhutan. 12. Physical features, ethnicity and social structure: Bhutan. 13. The people of Nepal. Index.

Vol. III. Geological and Physical Perspectives: Introduction. 1. Birth of the Himalaya. 2. Geological history. 3. Regional geography Western Himalaya. 4. General description of the Himalaya. 5. Kishtwar, Kashmir and Zanskar. 6. The high peaks of Asia. 7. The principal mountain ranges of the Himalayas. 8. The principle mountains ranges of Asia. 9. Kumaon and Gharwal. 10. The geology of the great peaks. 11. Geographical names that have given rise to controversy. 12. The climate of the Himalaya. 13. Historical perspectives on the errors of the adopted values of height. Index.

"Historical Prospectives, this book gives a detailed account of the origin and location of Himalaya. Aeons ago, the region was covered by a Shallow Tethys Sea, but as a result of the plates tectonics coming closer and colliding, there emerged the mountain of Himalaya. This is the youngest mountain of the world which is still registering growth in its peaks annually. Besides these fascinating details, it deals with the different ranges of Kashmir, Uttarakhand and other parts of Western and Eastern Himalaya, which are diverse ecological, environmental and climatic zones.

Demography and Human Geography, another volume of this book deals with the demography and social structure in various regions of the Himalaya. This includes the people, communities, languages, the aboriginals and later arrivals. The people of Jaunsar-Bawar are called as the \'relics of past\', who still preserve their culture dating back to Mahabharata period. There are polyandrous and Polygynandrous people in Jaunsar-Bawar, Spiti and Lahaul. This book also deals with kinship and social organisation of India, Bhutan and Nepal.

Geological and Physical Perspective, this volume deals with geology of Nepal, Uttarakhand, myth, history and man and other facts about Nepal. This book in three volumes contains up-to-date wealth of information culled from various sources on the subject in fascinating detail." (jacket)