Himalaya

Westerners tend to view the Himalayas as either a troubled political region or a mountain climbing mecca, but neither fully captures the place revealed in this magnificent book. Photographer Valli spent two decades documenting the Himalayan region and its peoples. His photographs, reproduced here in giant two-page spreads, are interspersed with short essays by cultural anthropologist de Sales, who examines how the area is being affected by the incursions of the 21st century. Many of Valli's images lack any trace of the modern world--yaks steam in the sun, women carry heavy bundles on faint trails. Familiar views of shepherds huddled against a snowstorm make riverside fishing scenes seem even more lush and green. Valli, who learned local languages and whose love for the region is palpable, moves among his subjects easily; people young and old gaze into his lens with varying degrees of amusement. These portraits are the best part of the book, revealing a way of life that will be unimaginably foreign to most readers. ""During my pilgrimages and encounters, I finally dissolved into these Himalaya,"" Valli writes. ""Under their tutelage, this high mountain world, this gigantic barrier of rock and snow that I had thought of as a vast, hostile, impassable wall revealed itself... to be a place of passage."" 200 color plates.