FYSM 174 - Highlanders:People and Culture of the Himalayas

Institution:

Trinity College

Subject:

Description:

Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet, John Avedon's In Exile from the Land of the Snow, and David Breashears film on the ill-fated Everest expeditions of 1996 are contributions to a large corpus of works related to Tibet and Nepal built around the experiences of Western adventurers, amateur religious investigators, and mountain climbers. The Himalayan rim exists in the American imagination as a set of dramatic pictures and impressions constructed from such sources. We equate the Himalayas with forbidding landscapes, exotic forms of Buddhism, and harrowing ascents of Mount Everest. However, only a fragment of the historical and cultural experience of this complex region is captured in its record as conveyed by the foreign visitors who sought adventure or the exotic in the lands of this imposing mountain chain. Throughout their history, the Himalayan highlands were a fascinating area of interaction between peoples and cultures. In their own right, these remote lands were extraordinarily creative as they produced great religious, artistic, and philosophical traditions that profoundly influenced the entire south and east Asian world. Unlike India or China, the small states of the Himalayas escaped colonial administration and developed in an idiosyncratic manner that strongly influences the life and mores of this part of the world today. This seminar will focus on the ethnographic map of the Himalayan rim and introduce the peoples, the Tibetan, Newar, Gurung, Magar, Tharu, Limbu, Sherpa, and Lepcha among others, who produced its distinctive cultures. An optional trek to Nepal with an attached .5 credit independent study unit is likely to be offered to interested members of the seminar during the inter-term (December 2007 to January 2008). Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class. 1.00 units, Seminar

Credits:

5.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.Trincoll.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 297-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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