MCLC: Asian Highlands Perspectives 31

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Nicky Harman <n.harmanic at gmail.com>
Subject: Asian Highlands Perspectives 31
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Dear All,

The editors of Asian Highlands Perspectives are pleased to announce the
publication of

AHP 31: The Lost World of Ladakh: Photographic Journeys through Indian
Himalaya, 1931-1934
 
By Rupert Wilmot, Roger Bates, and Nicky Harman, with a Foreword by Khenpo
K. Rangdol, President of Tserkarmo Monastery, Ladakh, India.

 
The Lost World of Ladakh is a superb collection of 150 black-and-white
photographs of 1930s Ladakh, capturing its final days as a hub of trade
routes between Tibet and Kashmir, India and Yarkand. These portraits of
people, landscapes and Buddhist ceremonies taken by amateur photographer
Rupert Wilmot, are notable for their careful composition, fine detail and
engaging informality. They have been meticulously researched and captioned
by Nicky Harman and Roger Bates, respectively, niece and nephew of Rupert
Wilmot, and include maps, an introduction and a bibliography. Of
considerable historical and ethnographic interest.

 
The volume is available as an at-cost hard copy (28.29USD, GBP£24):

http://www.lulu.com/shop/roger-bates-and-nicky-harman-and-rupert-wilmot/ahp
-31-the-lost-world-of-ladakh-early-photographic-journeys-in-indian-himalaya
/paperback/product-21733172.html
 

…and as a free download:

http://plateauculture.org/sites/plateauculture.org/files/writing/lost-world
-ladakh-early-photographic-journeys-indian-himalaya.pdf

 
…with an additional appendix:

http://plateauculture.org/writing/appendix-lost-world-ladakh

 
 
What other writers have said about The Lost World of Ladakh:

“A wonderfully elegaic set of photographs recording a lost world: an
almost mediaeval Ladakh  untouched by modernity and still living at the
hub of the old trans-Himalayan trade routes, a timeless Central Asia where
soot writing boards, itinerant monks, arcane astrologers, masked dancers
and elaborate turquoise headdresses were ‎still common. ‎These skillfully
restored photographs make me ache to cross again the snowy heights of the
Zoji-la and to re-visit this most fascinating region to see what is left.”
William Dalrymple, author of  Return of a King: The Battle for
Afghanistan, 1839-42

 
“Rupert Wilmot’s pictures are a delight. The monastery images include a
spectacular set of the religious dance-drama at Hemis. There is also a
visual record of the trades that lifted so many of Ladakh's villagers
above the poverty level: the bustle in Leh Bazaar, the interior of a
serai, and caravans of sheep, donkeys and ponies. Perhaps the book’s most
outstanding feature is the series of portraits of Wilmot’s
fellow-travellers and other Ladakhis, most of them in relaxed and cheerful
mode, rather than posing stiffly.”
Dr Janet Rizvi, writer and historian of Ladakh, Kashmir and the western
Himalaya

 
“These illustrations, superb as photographs in their own right, capture in
visual form the essence of Ladakhi life as it was in the 1930s.  While the
Ladakh pictured here is in many ways gone, its legacy lives on in the
distinctive culture of present-day Ladakh, which cannot be fully
appreciated without a knowledge of its history.  In this book we have a
unique and vital contribution to that history.”
Dr Philip Denwood, Emeritus Reader in Tibetan Studies, SOAS, University of
London

 
Claude Rupert Trench Wilmot (1897-1961) was a British army officer
stationed in India during the 1930s, and a talented amateur photographer.

 
Nicky Harman translates Chinese literature, and was formerly a lecturer at
Imperial College London.
 
Roger Bates digitized the photographs. A retired engineer, he has many
years of experience working in digital photography.