Indian Tibet, Tibetan India: The Cultural Legacy of the Western Himalayas

nspired by the first cultural expedition into the Western Himalayas by August Hermann Francke in 1909 which resulted in the region’s denomination as ‘Indian Tibet’, Peter van Ham has travelled for years in the long inaccessible Indo-Tibetan border regions after they were opened to the public in the beginning of the 1990’s. In secluded and remote high-altitude-valleys of breath-taking grandeur he documented some of the last refuges of Tibetan and early Indian culture and photographed people and the unique testimonies of their art, religion and architecture, culturally influenced by both of the region’s great neighbours-India and Tibet. With the aid of rare archival and contemporary textual and visual materials, many seen here for the first time ever, Peter van Ham draws a comprehensive picture of the fascinating history of the exploration of the present Indian border region towards Tibet. Knowledgably he describes the customs of its various inhabitants many of whom still follow their age-old traditions which at present are being stimulated and revived by the many exiled Tibetans that have found a new home in the region, thus designating it as ‘Tibetan India.’ With a message by the Dalai Lama and a preface by Michel Peissel.