Tenzing Norbu Lama,
Himalaya
Groundwood Books, 2002

Himalaya is a fictional story based upon the movie by the same name, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. This book shares the difficult and treacherous trek to the central valley of Tibet the Dolpo people take each year with their yak caravans to trade salt for grain. Dolpo people live high in the Himalayan mountains and this area is considered to be one of the most remote places of the kingdom of Nepal.

Himalaya, presents the reader with the story of a young boy, Tsering, who waits for his father to return with the salt caravan only to discover that his father, the chief, has been killed on this route. The death of the chief among the Dolpo people raises suspicions about whether the death was accidental or done with mal intent so that another man, Karma, could lay claim to the title of chief. Tinle, Tsering’s grandfather, is against Karma becoming the new chief and is focused on having his young grandson succeed his father to the rightful position of the chief. In order to establish who should be the chief, two separate groups head out with their caravans, one lead by Karma and the other by Tinle, with the help of his grandson Tsering. The story follows the travels of the two caravans and the eventual joining of the two groups in the face of adversity.

What I enjoyed most about this book were the illustrations, done by Tenzing Norbu Lama, who was born in a small village in Dolpo. He grew up in a monastery where he studied painting and prepared to be a lama. The paintings for this book were almost twenty-six feet and took six months to complete. The story was a little hard to follow and I found myself wondering if, in the effort to compact the story to match the format of a picture book, important information was lost. The book would have benefited from more details and greater development of the plot.

Thematic Links: Multi-Cultural Studies; Himalayan Culture

Jennifer Batycky
Vol. 10, number 1
October 2002