Books About Lepchas?

tacita

Hi IMers,

Has anyone read "The Inheritance of Loss: A Novel", by Kiran Desai? It won the Booker Prize. Is it a recommended read? Most reviews have been favorable, but I'd be interested to know whether anyone here has read it and recommends it preparatory to visiting Sikkim.

Also, it appears that most non-fiction and anthropologic-oriented books about them are out of print. Has anyone suggestions for background reading (still in print) about the culture before its exposure western influences?

Thanks.

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machadinha

Hmm... this is a very long shot but in my post #8 on my Ancient Maps, Pics & Stuff -- Pritchett's Bookmarks I posted a link to the IISH, see also their main page (English version), not just the Asian branch. If there's anything non-fiction out there they'll probably list it. Availability is another matter, but...

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tacita

thanks, M. i did a quick search of the collection and didn't come up with anything about the lepchas. i'll search the ny public library holdings. should have thought of that first. i was too quick to search out something online that i could have delivered to my door!

machadinha

I thought I'd hold back on the Read The %^& Manual comments a little

But, yes, in NYC (university) libraries should be most helpful I reckon. Where I live there are excellent travel bookstores with very knowledgable staff that function as semi-libraries & host get-togethers on all sorts of highly specific subjects, have notice boards for people seeking and offering all kinds of info, etc. Get away from that PC for a bit and venture out into the real world! It's scary but worth it (sometimes).

Just pulling your leg really, good luck with it. Hey asking never hurt no one, be sure to ask again.

Did you check the web for "Lepcha[s]"? More hits than you could possibly handle.

tacita

It's not my fault! It's not! It's IndiaMike's! I had a well-balanced life and actually slept most nights at the very hour it is now until the week or so ago when I decided to go to Sikkim and then discovered this site. Beau, friends, family and colleagues are threatening in intervention!

tacita

actually, i went to amazon.com bcz they have even the most obscure titles and it's books that pop up as i configured my browser. that's how i learned that everything that looked remotely desireable was unavailable. if the ny public library didn't require me to punch in every doggone number from a loooooong barcode on my ID just to log in, i might not have had the mental block about searching there first. they won't deliver to my door, but they WILL deliver to the branch a mere block from me, and i could thus be away from IndiaMike for a mere 20 minutes.

dzibead

My amazon search says that Himalayan Village: An Account of the Lepchas of Sikkim by Geoffrey Gorer is available used from 3 sellers. Check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...106288-7760759

And here's a bit of trivia: the Roman Catholic Bishop of Darjeeling is a Lepcha (named Stephen Lepcha, as a matter of fact; in Sikkim, people often have their ethnic group as their "surname" - e.g., "Bhutia" is a common surname.

You might also enjoy Memoirs of a Political Officer's Wife in Tibet, Sikkim, and Bhutan by Margaret D. Williamson. It's also available at amazon.com

machadinha

Yes, no, that's cool, but I meant it looks like there's a lot of online material even. So stay glued to that screen Sorry, I didn't read it all for ya

dzibead

You can see some films taken in the 1930's in Sikkim, as well as in Tibet and Bhutan, here. They were taken by Frederick Williamson, the husband of the woman whose book I mentioned above. The entire website is interesting.

http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/colle...amsonfilms.php

tacita

...for these suggestions. i came across those titles as well, but was mostly hoping for personal recommendations/reviews, if any. in any event, will check out those titles and the link you included.

vistet

Turning it the other way around, you could read about Kinthup, the Lepcha explorer who would have changed our (literal) view of the Himalayas a lot earlier ... had the British only listened.

Derek Wallers The Pundits has a chapter on Kinthup , there is a short wikipedia text and some good on line articles.

tacita

thanks, vistet, i had a look. interesting story, as are those of pundits nain singh, hari ram, and krishna singh.

(anecdotally, it's curious that the surveys were so accurate when measured by men's paces, which can so vary.)

vistet

Victor Chan wrote one of the first Tibet handbooks for Westerners, in a time when the Chinese wouldn´t release their maps for public use, and commented that he was amazed by the accuracy of the pundits maps.

(Jamyang Norbu wrote a wonderfully vitriolic review of later guidebooks in Tibetan Review, a minor classic, but now I`m drifting totally off topic.)

dzibead

Well, you have my personal recommendation of the Williamson book. I thought it was very interesting, although it doesn't actually focus on the Lepchas as such. I can't comment on the Gorer book, though. I bought it recently but haven't yet read it.

tacita

thanks, dzibead. my library didn't have that one, but i oredered the gorer book from the library, so should have that ready for pick-up in a few days. if you get around to reading it (and if i do!), perhaps we can exchange reviews.

"the inheritance of loss", mentioned in my OP, sounds like a very good novel, but there were about 350 people waiting to borrow 50 or so copies from the library. i may just buy that one.

thanks again.