TIBETAN CARAVANS

Abdul Wahid Radhu

This evocative memoir by a Tibetan Muslim “caravaneer”—travelling trader—from Ladakh reveals a Himalayan world that was far more interconnected and cosmopolitan than the region is today. The book, which includes a foreword by the Dalai Lama, shows how trans-Himalayan trade and the exchange of ideas and goods were impeded by the rise of the modern Chinese, Indian and Pakistani nation states and the erection and enforcement of their borders. Some of the things that have resulted, Radhu writes, are a loss of closeness between Islam and Buddhism in the area, and far less intermingling between Kashmir, Ladakh and Tibet.

Speaking Tiger, 304 pages, Rs 450