Product Description
Nepal has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

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Narayan P. Manandhar has spent decades in a firsthand study of the ethnobotanical riches of Nepal's flora. He has conducted field research in all 75 districts of Nepal, on foot, in a lifelong effort to identify the plants and record their traditional roles in Nepalese society. The result is this book, his magnum opus, in which he describes the uses of an astonishing 1517 kinds of plants belonging to 858 genera and 195 families, equal to perhaps one-fifth of the entire Nepalese flora. This indigenous wisdom is dying with the older generation, so we are fortunate that the author has rescued this heritage for his fellow Nepalese and, indeed, all who are concerned about the wealth of knowledge to be obtained from this fascinating country. More than 830 drawings and 48 color photographs by the author illustrate the text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Vast and Valuable
This is a comprehensive and detailed work on the ethnobotany of Nepal. The first part of the volume details the land and people of the country, but most of the book is a detailed listing of the plants of the region and their uses.

Each listing gives the Latin name of the plant, common English names (if there are any) and the name given to the plant by local people. There is a description of the plant and its distribution in Nepal followed by its value for food, medicine and other uses.

Tis is a vast work about a complex and little-known region. The writer was born and raised in a village in Nepal and worked as a botanist for the Nepalese government. This book contains the organization of 30 years of field information, and is intended to record and disseminate the plant knowledge of the Nepalese people and also to catalogue this knowledge in an organized way.

Appendices list plants according to use and according to ethnic community. There is a considerable glossary and reference list, along with extensive lists of common names and Latin names.

This is a truly valuable book for the serious student of ethnobotany.

Vast and Valuable
This is a comprehensive and detailed work on the ethnobotany of Nepal. The first part of the volume details the land and people of the country, but most of the book is a detailed listing of the plants of the region and their uses.

Each listing gives the Latin name of the plant, common English names (if there are any) and the name given to the plant by local people. There is a description of the plant and its distribution in Nepal followed by its value for food, medicine and other uses.

Tis is a vast work about a complex and little-known region. The writer was born and raised in a village in Nepal and worked as a botanist for the Nepalese government. This book contains the organization of 30 years of field information, and is intended to record and disseminate the plant knowledge of the Nepalese people and also to catalogue this knowledge in an organized way.

Appendices list plants according to use and according to ethnic community. There is a considerable glossary and reference list, along with extensive lists of common names and Latin names.

This is a truly valuable book for the serious student of ethnobotany. ... Read more

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A survey of the countries of the Indian subcontinent coversgeography, demographics, agriculture, history, politics, culture, religion, arts, literature, and science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Introduction with photos, illustrations and facts
I was searching for a good book on India, with a historical bent, as a gift for a friend here in the US. This book provides a very good introduction with pictures, illustrations and relevant facts. The book provides a general outline of history and more importantly also introduces the reader to the general mindset & prevailing conditions ("cultural atlas") in India. It also provides some basic information on the states and neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan & Burma.

The special features sections focus on the things that people of India are most likely to be known about. Most people will not remember everything about a culture/nation. They will probably remember only the most interesting things and the special features of this book present these in a clear, understandable manner, i.e mostbly agreeable to people like me who have grown up in India.

Non-fiction books are hard to read for some people, these people are looking to escape from the ordinary. This book will interest the reader into reading & learning more about India. As for fantasy the readers might want to try tales, parables and comics like Jataka stories, Amar Chitra Katha...

Excellent reference book!
As an Indian, I'm wary when "outsiders" put together a book on my country, but this book is exceptional.It gives facts and general descriptions of anything and everything when one thinks of India.Lots ofpictures makes it an easy read.Worth every penny.This is the bookteachers in America should use when trying to give an overview on INDIA. ... Read more

Product Description
Nepal is going through the most tumultuous period in its history. The writing of the new Constitution will only be a small step towards producing a stable country. While there is no disagreement over the issue of state restructuring itself, challenging spin-offs stemming from a failure to address questions of identity, ethnicity, language, religion, region and culture are emerging as clear fault lines of New Nepal. Security sector governance, the structure of the political system and the relations between various organs of the state are yet to be determined, while law and order, supply of daily essentials, and immediate economic relief to the rural hinterlands is already testing the patience of the people. Political parties are once again resorting to the old addiction of forming and dismantling governments, knowing well that this will be disastrous the nascent democracy. A chaotic Nepal will also be a headache for both India and China. This book reflects the nature of the enormous challenges before Nepal and the exceptionally important discussion on how to resolve these problems and move ahead ... Read more

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Published in association with the World Wide Fund for Nature, Wild India is a valuable current record of the subcontinent's wild places and wilderness areas. Guy Mountfort, an authority on all aspects of species preservation provides a discerning account of the ecological and human history of the region, focusing on present-day pressures on India's irreplaceable natural heritage. Gerald Cubitt's superb 400 full-color photographs are informatively captioned and divided into sections on the Himalayas, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and the Deccan.Wild India surveys the great diversity of plant and animal life from the remote Karakoram range in Ladakh to the rainforests of the southwestern ghats, from the deserts of the far west of Rajasthan to the jungles and swamps of Assam and Manipur. Here, among numerous other species, are the magnificent Kashmir stag and the shy musk deer, the rare lion-tailed macaque and the Nilgiri tahr, and the Asiatic lion - in its last bastion in the Gir forest - along with the golden langur, the one-horned rhinoceros, and herds of elephant and buffalo.Guy Mountfort has helped to create national parks and wildlife reserves in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. As a founder of the World Wide Fund for Nature, he led the international campaign to save the tiger from extinction. Gerald Cubitt, one of the world's leading natural history photographers, has provided all of the photographs for Wild India, as he did for the companion volume, Wild Malaysia.Amazon.com Review
To many, India invokes crowded Bombay bazaars and crampedCalcutta quarters more than bucolic vistas. With a populationsurpassing 850,000,000, India's humanity predominates, but it'snonetheless true that India possesses a remarkable natural wealth andscope. From the Himalayas to the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the KarakoramRange in Ladakh to the swamps of Assam, the enormous variety ofclimate and terrain supports a vast diversity of vegetation andwildlife, with one-horned rhinoceros and lion-tailed macaques, Kashmirstags and Asiatic lions prowling the preserves. Traversing thecontinent, Gerald Cubitt photographed the craggy, snow-cappedmountains, the lush vegetation, and the wildlife that lives there, andGuy Mountfort provided the text. The pictures are astoundinglybeautiful and varied. A fragile, pink, newly hatched robin accentoropens its mouth for food, 5,100 meters up in Ladakh. A mass of purpleImpatiens sulcata bloom in the Valley of Flowers in the GarhwalHimalaya of Uttar Pradesh. Pristine snow gleams on the slopes of MountAnnapurna in the late afternoon sun. And the red panda from thetemperate forests of Sikkim looks softly, fox-like, from itstree. There are pictures of the handsome leopard cat (hunted for itsfur despite its protected status) and the clouded leopard (baring itsunusually long canines), as well as hoolock gibbons swinging on vines,a Buffalo cow guarding twin calves among burned elephant grass, and aPallas's fishing eagle high up in Kaziranga National Park. If youweren't an avid naturalist before you start flipping through thisglossy archive of Indian wildlife, you will be soon. It's hard to seeall that beauty without planning your own safari to one or more ofIndia's many national parks and sanctuaries. ... Read more

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Short history of the army, evaluation of its response to the Maoist uprising. also background on contemporary politics, Nepal ... Read more

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Starting from the Geo-Political situation and early history of Tibet, the book gives a brief account of the geography and history of the other Himalayan Kingdoms - Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal and the various wars fought in these regions during the 18th and 19th centuries. It then gives a detailed account of the British interest in Central Asia highlighting overall British policy-objectives which were directed towards ensuring that Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Burma and of course Tibet remain in the British sphere of influence. ... Read more

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The paintings have the purpose of attracting the deity's presence during the celebrations in his or her honor and a blessing on the family members of the house where they are painted. ... Read more

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In this rich and deeply personal account of life in the highlands of Nepal, Geoff Childs chronicles the daily existence of a range of people, from venerated lamas to humble householders. Offering insights into the complex dynamics of the ethnically Tibetan enclave of Nubri, Childs provides a vivid and compelling portrait of the ebb and flow of life and death, of communal harmony and discord, and of personal conflicts and social resolutions. Part ethnography, part travelogue, and part biography, Tibetan Diary is a one-of-a-kind book that conveys the tangled intricacies of a Tibetan society.
Childs's immensely readable and informative narrative incorporates contemporary observations as well as vignettes culled from first-person testaments including oral histories and autobiographies. Examining the tensions between cultural ideals and individual aspirations, he explores certain junctures in the course of life: how the desire to attain religious knowledge or to secure a caretaker in old age contrasts with social expectations and familial obligation, for example. The result is a vivid and unparalleled view of the quest for both spiritual meaning and mundane survival that typifies life in an unpredictable Himalayan environment. ... Read more

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Great book, great author
This book makes me want to visit the people of Nubri.Geoff is an inspiring writer. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (6)

Ideologically blinkered, but somewhat worth reading
There is much that is commendable about this book.Onesto does a commendable job in illuminating the hardships faced in the poverty-stricken areas of Nepal, the age-old oppression faced by women, and the brutal tactics of the Nepalese Armed forces used in fighting the Maoist insurgency.

However, and this is a BIG however, the book suffers from the author's own ideological stance.She does a very poor job at offering a complete historical context, or even discussing why the Maoists broke off from the Communist Party of Nepal to start their armed war in the mid-90s.Many of the statistic the author cites are incorrect - she states that the poverty rate in Nepal is %70, while according to the latest UN figures it is %42.She claims that the average annual income is less than $ 200 US, while, again according to the UN, it is around $330 - still not much, but a vast difference.Her map of Nepal leaves many districts un-named, except for the ones where Maoists have been active, leading the casual reader with little knowledge of Nepal to believe that those areas are not populated.They are - aside from Dolpa and Mustang, the country is fairly heavily populated.She also gives the impression that the Maoists have very large numbers.Well, according to the UN brokered cease-fire agreement, under which the Maoist rebels agreed to turn in their guns, a little over 15,000 rebels have turned in their arms.That's out of a population of 26 million.She does not adequately address the role of religion in Nepal - despite her allegations that many people do not believe in Hinduism (or Buddhism, I guess - she doesn;t really address that either), the vast majority of Nepal's popuation are active believers.
She also doesn't write much about the Maoists' atrocities - they have also killed innocent people, extorted businesses, threaten people, rob banks, rape and commit the same crimes as the RNA does.Over 12,000 people, probably much more than that, have died in the conflict so far - I would guess that the Maoists are responsible for 1/4 to 1/3 of those deaths.

Perhaps the most egregious facet of the book is the author's glowing admiration for Maoism, his political and agrarian reforms, and Mao himself. This would be the same Mao that introduced slave labor camps, mass extermination, forced collectivization, the attempted erasure of Tibetan Buddhism and the country of Tibet, and other programs that resulted in the death of an estimated 70 to 80 million people during his tenure.Prachanda (the Maoist leader) in an interview states that he wants to adopt the Maoist program of forced collectivization - this was Mao's disaterous program known as "The Great Leap forward" that resulted in widespread famine in China and Tibet.Also used by Pol Pot, another famous Maoist (with his own twist), that resulted in the death of about 1/3 of Cambodia's population, most through famine and malnourishment.This is not the kind of policies and government I would like to see for Nepal, and for my many friends who live there.I am left of left myself, but when an author cannot separate herself from ideology, and the effects of this ideology when put into practice, there is something very important missing from their approach to political change.She reminds me of the many Western intellectuals who rabidly supported Mao's Cultural Revolution, and then had little to say when the details about mass killings, torture and other atrocities started to surface.It's one thing to have beliefs, but then to live them vicariously through someone else's country - the Nepalese are not guinea pigs for Western Maoist wanna-be's.

I have spent a fair amount of time in Nepal in three different trips and have spoken with many Nepalese about the current political situation.No one I ever spoke to supported the king, but neither did anyone support the Maoists.They mostly just wanted a stable democracy, the resotration of their constitution and rights, and the ability to live a peaceful life. They personally told me about Maoist threats and extortion.I have met the Maoists also, and they were very nice - but they are aware that when they talk to foreigners, they essentially slip into a PR mode.

At any rate, the book is now an anachronism.The "beautiful" revolution has folded, since the Maoists agreed to enter into the new government with the other seven democratic parties. While I was in Nepal in April 2006, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Kathmandu, and forced the King to relinquish his control of the government.Deomcracy has been restored, despite the Maoists continued threats to take up their arms again when they do not get what they want.That revolution, in April 2006, I would argue, was the real "People's War," and it was conducted non-violently.

refreshing view of the complicated situation
this book provides new and important information about the Maoist/royal struggle and offers a view and honesty not found in mainstream media.it is up to date and should definately be read by those truly interested in the actual state of living in Nepal at the moment.

She paints an incredible vivid and exciting portrait
Li Onesto's Dispatches are literally incredible. They paint a vivid beautiful portrait of masses standing up to tyrants, and creating New Democracy that benefits the masses of people, rather than the landlords and foreign imperialists. I highly recommend this book. It is a wonderful exciting read that will open you eyes to one of the most radical and earth shaking events that will happen in our life times.

A Biased Portrayal of a Bloody Insurgency
Li Onesto paints an intriguing yet biased portrait of the current civil war in Nepal.Consistenly referring to the Maoist insurgents as "brave comrades" and "martyrs", she speaks of any police or government officials as "murderers" and "oppressors," without distinguishing between either side's horrific violence and human rights abuses.Onesto admits that her intrigue stemmed from her so-called research into the events occuring; however, her two cited sources, "A World to Win" and "The Worker" are both Communist journals, lending the reader to pick up a keen sense of bias in her writing.Rather than interviewing members from all sides of the war, Onesto focuses only on those who are on her side: the Maoists.Not only does she not portray the other side, Onesto uses irresponsible journalism to take advantage of the Maoists by equating the comparatively small brutality in theUS to their war.She often speaks of the "Revolution in the US." She also mentions the "Stolen Lives" project as a group of survivors of young people killed by the police in the US.However, a look into this website will prove few actual cases of brutality; instead if often considers cases in which police used lethal force in self defense; a quick glance through the cases in your area will discredit the organization. Obvious bias toward Communism aside, the book lacks any flow besides chronology of interviews.The articles do not evolve; similar stories are told in the first part and the last part of the book; only names and places change.Good read if bias is not minded and climax is not sought.

RE: Dispatches from the People's War in Nepal
Li Onesto paints a realistic and true panorama of the Nepali people and the war for liberation that they have been waging for six years. You feel as though you are trekking with her and meeting many Nepalisin various areas of Nepal when she made the trip in 1999. This book is a must read and should be in everystore like REI and travel agencies if one is preparing to travel to Nepal. You have not really had a "Nepali experience" as a trekker if you did not meet some of the Maoists and learn why they are fighting to change their society. Also anyone who is following the recent events in Nepal need to check out this book. The photographs are beautiful and moving, and you really feel as though the people are close to you even if they are thousands of miles away. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. ... Read more

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Highly and colorfully illustrated, entices visitors to the only Hindu kingdom on the planet by describing its landscape, people, plant and animal life, and facilities. After going through the various routes and regions, examines special features and how to do business, and offers helpful facts. Anno ... Read more

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From the silent icy world of the Himalaya to the humid plains of the Ganges, this is a guide to the finest ecotourism destinations of India and Nepal. The two countries have established an impressive number of national parks and sanctuaries to protect and nurture not only well-known animals, such as the tiger and the Indian elephant, but also gaur, muntjac, cheetal and sambar, as well as their colourful birdlife, insects and flowers. This colour book portrays 40 of the region's protected places, as well as offering practical information on how and when to visit and what outdoor activities can be pursued. ... Read more

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Articles on the history of Nepal. ... Read more

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Historical development of the kingship of Nepal during 14th to 18th centuries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

this book is fantastic to know about nepals wildlife
Nice book to know about wild Life in Nepal before visiting tothat place.By reading this book i love to visit that place ... Read more

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Deals with Gurkhas. ... Read more