Places in Knots: Remoteness and Connectivity in the Himalayas and Beyond

Tracing the experiences of mobile Himalayan across the globe, Places in Knots describes the ways in which Himalayan communities relate to the multiple places they inhabit and the work and trouble of keeping them tied together. The book describes global Himalayan ventures as a form of expansion of community rather than out-migration. Moving out does not sever the bonds of community. Rather, moving out is the pull that ties the knot.

Coffee table books and trekking agencies continue to advertise the Himalayas as remote hidden valleys and NGOs see them as fragile mountain ecosystems to be protected from global forces of destruction. Places in Knots shows how these tropes of remoteness inform development and conservation policies and thus shape the context in which Himalayan connections with the wider world are forged and maintained. Following Himalayan journeys between valleys Nepal and beyond, Martin Saxer draws a picture of globalization that doesn't emerge from the centres and neither from below--but rather from the edge.

Thanks to generous funding from LMU Mchen, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellopen.org) and other repositories.