A complex, ambitious portrait of the Himalayas

In ‘Himalaya: A Human History’, Ed Douglas blends geology, religion and politics to show how the mountains shaped (and were shaped by) people.

When Han Suyin, the Chinese-born Eurasian writer, arrived in Nepal in 1956 to attend King Mahendra’s coronation, she was inspired to write the book ‘The Mountain is Young’, which captured the fragments of Kathmandu’s coming-out party and the boozy world of Boris Lissanevitch, who opened Nepal to the world.