Sherpa of Khumbu: People, Livestock, and Landscape (Studies in Social Ecology and Environmental History)
by Barbara Anne Brower
Category: Environment - Effects of - Agriculture - History

In the three and a half decades since Nepal opened its borders and Edmund Hillary stood with Tenzing on the summit of Everest the Sherpa world has changed irreversibly. Becoming a part of the rest of the world and being defined as a natural park have brought new pressures on the people and the land, new expectations about what Sagarmatha National Park ought to look like, whom it is for and by whom it should be managed. Expeditions and trekking groups, with demands for human and animal porterage have affected old animal husbandry practices and, together with other concomitant developments, have vitally affected both the traditional life of the Sherpa people and the fragile high mountain environment of Khumbu. This study, based on extensive fieldwork, looks at animal management in Sagarmatha National Park in the context of Sherpa subsistance, demonstrating the intricacy of the man-land relationship, the adaptability of traditional people and the range of considerations that must be taken into account in any attempt to modify traditional land-use practices. The Khumbu landscape is graphically described and the human role in modifying the natural landscape is explored. Sherpa history and economy are discussed, as are the substantial changes that the traditional life of Khumbu has undergone in the past few decades. Livestock provides a focal point for this wide-ranging investigation and the cattle economy in particular is described in some detail. In sum, this work provides a well-rounded and very readable account of Sherpa society in transition and its interaction with its environment and the external world. Although focusing on the Sherpa, its relevance stretches far beyond its immediatesubject to the study of all traditional societies subject to the pressures of change and the debate on the apparent hiatus between preservation of the environment and the legitimate rights of the people who depend upon it for a livelihood.