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

Inspired 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, the author has travelled for years in the long inaccessible Indo-Tibetan border regions after they were opened to the public in the beginning of the 1990s. 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. With the aid of rare archival and contemporary textual and visual materials, many seen here for the first time ever, the author draws a comprehensive picture of the fascinating history of the exploration of the present Indian border region towards Tibet.

Peter Van Ham

Peter van Ham is an educator and producer of musical and visual media in Frankfurt. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic and the Royal Geographical Societies, London, as well as of the prestigious Explorers Club in New York City. Peter van Ham has written several books and articles on regions of the Himalayas and is active in curating exhibitions on the subjects of his research. This is his fifth book on North-East India.