Himalayan Wonderland: Travels in Lahaul and Spiti

The region of Lahaul-Spiti—a little known valley in the inner Himalayan near the Indo-Tibetan border, is a land of majestic and pristine beauty. Part memoir, part travel book and part anthropology, Himalayan Wonderland is a witty opinionated account of author’s lifelong affair with this extra ordinary region. The book is rich in its narration of history, society and folklore, and lyrical in its descriptions of nature and landscapes. It is also brimming with excitement and the challenge of bringing the fruits of modern development to this remote area, which was largely cut off from the outside world till a couple or so of decades ago. The book even describes the dramatically visible impact of climate change on the great glaciers of Lahul-Spiti. A former IAS officer, Manohar Singh Gill (b. 1936) has been Deputy Commissioner of Lahaul-Spiti in 1962. He retired from civil services as, Chief Election Commissioner of India.

In the summer of 1962, a restless young Indian administrator, Manohar Singh Gill, made an arduous journey from the north Indian plains to the farthest reaches of the Indian Himalayas-the Lahaul ans Spiti valleys-and spent a year there, living and working amongst the people.  Gill went on to a distinguished career in the civil services and government, but his experience of the relentless beauty of these spectacular Himalayan deserts and the generosity of the people of this land changed him for life. 

Part memoir, part travel book and part anthropology, Himalayan Wonderland is a witty, opinionated account of Gill’s lifelong affair with this extraordinary region.  The book, however, is much more than one man’s account of a place…. It is a hopeful and enlightening view of the practice of administration and the joy of working with people.

Illustrated with more than forty photographs taken by Gill himself, and including detailed contour maps and information on trekking routes in Lahaul and Spiti, this a remarkably illuminating and accessible account of this faraway land-from the 1960s, when few knew about the place, to today’s unpredictable world of receding glaciers and lost cultures.