The Nanda Devi AffairThere is a kind of brotherhood between man and mountains.... The inescapable logic of desire leaves the mountain traveller no choice but to plan his next expedition to the very peak that may have just rejected vociferously the most singleminded of advances.' In his thirty-year sojourn in India, Bill Aitken has had two serious affairs"one, essentially spiritual in nature, with the country's rivers, the other more earthy and passionate, with her mountains. In this sequel to his first book for Penguin, Seven Sacred Rivers, he talks of his second great obsession"Nanda Devi, patron Goddess of Kumaon and Garhwal. Spanning more than a decade, from the Seventies to the Eighties, Aitken's attempts to explore the sanctuary of this most beautiful of Himalayan peaks were not, he admits, those of a professional mountaineer, but of a romantic. Accordingly, what he gives us is, in his own words, -neither a book about Himalayan climbing nor a treatise on hill theology but a diary of mountain relish.' Aitken's deep-seated study of the cult of the Goddess and the folklore and customs of the Kumaon Himalayas is chequered with deliciously acerbic asides on bumptious bureaucrats, the bane of Indian mountaineering, while the true nature lover's concern for the environment is manifest in his anger over the destruction wrought by political motivations and the ambitions of so-called professional mountaineers. |
From inside the book
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Page 42
... honour his commitment . However we only got as far as the next village of Pipalkoti before we learned that the loops up to Joshimath were blocked by landslides . So we stopped over at the sparse Baba Kala Kambliwala dharamsala and ate ...
... honour his commitment . However we only got as far as the next village of Pipalkoti before we learned that the loops up to Joshimath were blocked by landslides . So we stopped over at the sparse Baba Kala Kambliwala dharamsala and ate ...
Page 151
... honoured customs of the Devi . The reformers accused the orthodox of using their defence of ancient ways to guarantee ... honour of Nanda Bhagawati . But at Hom Kund the incensed opinion of the traditionalists finally overcame official ...
... honoured customs of the Devi . The reformers accused the orthodox of using their defence of ancient ways to guarantee ... honour of Nanda Bhagawati . But at Hom Kund the incensed opinion of the traditionalists finally overcame official ...
Page 175
... honour of Uma Devi ) were distinctly broad in the beam , having been given a low centre of gravity deliberately to try and outwit the earth tremors . The main temple to Nanda Devi in Almora is too inelegant to be anything but modern ...
... honour of Uma Devi ) were distinctly broad in the beam , having been given a low centre of gravity deliberately to try and outwit the earth tremors . The main temple to Nanda Devi in Almora is too inelegant to be anything but modern ...
Contents
The Moving Mountain | 1 |
Vital Statistics | 11 |
Beru Pakho | 20 |
Copyright | |
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Almora altitude animal ascent Badri Badrinath Bal Singh base camp beauty Bedni Bhagawati bharal Bhotia birch British buggials bungalow cave Changabang chowkidar climb climbers clouds cold crossing deity Delhi descent Devi's devotees Dharansi Dibrugheta Dumyat Everest expedition forest Ganga Garhwal glacier goats Goddess Gopal gorge Govind hill Himalayas Hindu Hom Kund honour Indian inner sanctuary Joshimath jungle Kalanka Karnaprayag Kausani Krur Kuari Kumaon Kundan lake Lata Kharak Latu load main peak meadows mist monsoon mood morning motor road mountain Mussoorie Nanda Devi Nanda Ghunti Nanda Kot Nandakini Nathu Nauti never night one's party passed path pilgrim pilgrimage porters Pratap rain Raj Jat Rhamani ridge Rishi river rock route Rup Kund sacred season seemed sheep shepherd Shipton Shiva shrine slope snow leopard Sriyantra steep stumbled summit Sutol Tapovan temple tent trail Trisul turned Uttarakhand valley village weather women worship Yashu