Living Between Juniper and Palm: Nature, Culture, and Power in the Himalayas

Living between Juniper and Palm discusses issues of sustainability, ecology, and environment in the Himalayas, particularly among the Tamang people of Nepal. Indigenous environmental knowledge is revealed-covering forests and plants, places and pathways, wild and domestic animals, and ideas of sameness and difference between humans and non-humans. Modern conservation of the environment is contrasted to shamanic and Hindu cosmologies, providing cultural analysis to power dimensions of participatory conservation after Nepal’s Maoist insurgency. This anthropological study combines critical perspectives and a comparative framework for analysing human-environment relations. The author also addresses new approaches to environmental protection, examining the case of Langtang National Park. He compares attempts to make the park a more inclusive organization with similar moves elsewhere in Nepal under the sustainability agenda.