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The large format and the dramatic cover photo suggest a coffee-table book, something to browse every now and again. But initial appearances prove to be misleading with "Himalaya" (National Geographic Books, 249 pages, $35).
The handsome volume does include many dramatic color photographs of the Roof of the World and its peoples. But this book, edited by Richard C. Blum, Erica Stone and Broughton Coburn of the American Himalayan Foundation, also is a remarkable anthology of compelling essays by many notables from around the world (the Dalai Lama, Sir Edmund Hillary, Jimmy Carter) who cover wide-ranging topics unlikely to be found in some coffee-table tome.
"Himalaya" is a fascinating blend -- part deep appreciation of a singular place and its people, part warning signal about the increasing impact of the modern world there, and part inspiring call to preserve and improve an imperiled lifestyle that has endured for ages.
Of course, mountaineering plays a central role in "Himalaya." The first ascent of Mount Everest by New Zealand climber Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 set off the world's fascination with that region and it has continued to this day. Hillary has one of the essays in the book, along with Norgay's son and Jim Whittaker of Port Townsend, who became the first American to reach Everest's summit in 1963.
No one in the volume captures the rigors of climbing in the Himalayas better than Jon Krakauer, the former Seattleite who chronicled the 1996 Everest climbing disaster in his huge best-seller, "Into Thin Air."
"I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain," Krakauer writes. "And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking, above all else, something like a state of grace."
Mountain climbing can have its off-putting elements to those who are not caught up in the pursuit, especially when climbers perish in accidents and inevitably are described as "doing what they loved to do," regardless of the grieving loved ones they leave behind. But one of the great virtues of "Himalaya" is that it illuminates how not all climbers are consumed solely by the selfish drive to the summit.
Hillary founded the Himalayan Trust after his time on the summit and has spent much of his life since involved in efforts to build schools, hospitals and clinics to aid people in the region. The noted alpinist describes those as the "most important projects" of his life.
Climbers and trekkers also have played a crucial role in the American Himalayan Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that has done enviable good works in the region during the past quarter-century. The foundation's efforts have educated 11,000 children, paid for 40,000 urgent surgeries and aided 20,000 Tibetan refugees who have left their embattled homeland and often endured perilous journeys to new countries.
Climber Conrad Anker writes, "I've climbed a few high peaks and survived some exotic adventures, yet it is the smiling, laughing, caring, strong and compassionate people of the Himalaya that have changed me. Climbing a peak is a sliver of dream, a temporary objective. ... The mountains have taught me humility, but the people who live in the shadows of these mountains have taught me acceptance, respect, and kindness."
"Himalaya" provides inspiring tales of hope and action, but does not sugarcoat the problems that bedevil the fabled region and its inhabitants.
Essays in the book, many written by residents and expatriates of the region, examine everything from Nepali girls enslaved in prostitution in India to the violent political climate in Bhutan and Nepal, the imperiled plight of tigers and snow leopards, the great threat of a cataclysmic earthquake that could kill hundreds of thousands, the possibility that a Chinese dam may flood the Tsangpo River Gorge, source of the fabled Shangri-la.
"Himalaya" is a stirring combination of words and photographs worthy of both reflection and action.
"Himalaya" is celebrated at a fund-raising event for the American Himalayan Foundation in Seattle, with co-editor Coburn, a Seattle native who lives in Wyoming, and some of the book's illustrious Seattle-area contributors (Jim Whittaker, Brent Bishop, Pete Athans, Liesl Clark and Bill Thompson). It's at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, REI Flagship Store, 222 Yale Ave. N.; 206-223-1944. $12.
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