A Journey Towards Palpa”, 1922-1932 / 1997 Joëlle Smadja

”A journey towards Palpa”, 1922-1932 / 1997 Joëlle Smadja

To cite this version:

Joëlle Smadja. ”A journey towards Palpa”, 1922-1932 / 1997. European bulletin of Himalayan research, University of Cambridge ; Südasien-Institut (Heidelberg, Allemagne)., 1999, A special double issue on photography dedicated to Corneille Jest, pp.41-49. hal-00680888

HAL Id: hal-00680888 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00680888 Submitted on 10 Feb 2018

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. EBHR 15- 16. 1998- 1999

Hence. when Majors Northey and Morris. then "Rccruiting Officers for the Gurkha Regiments in "A JOURNEY TOWA RDS PALPA"l, Nepal", received authorisation rrom Prime Ministers 1922-1932/1997 Chandra. Bhim and Juddha Shams her, to go to Masyam (i n December 1922 and 1932 for Nonhey: in 1931 then J OELLE SMADJA in December 1932 for Morris). they discovered comple tely unknown areas, which along with some trips to the "There are rew Englishmen who, spending their service cast of the country. permilled them to write the first in India , have any conception of what a visillO epaJ is general works on NepalS• like. When once the Terai has been crossed. when once At the time the British were interestcd in knowing the lower fouthills are entered on , onc is in an entirely morc abou t the country, as we ll as about the configura new world." (Bruce in Nonhey & Morris 1928) tion of th e Hi gh Ran ge and the appearance of the In December 1922. after having left the Terai and NepalfTibet border for strategic purposes. As Morris crossed the Curiya. Major William Brook onhey rea cou ld not see these snow-covered summits in 193 1. he ched Ma.>yam ridge2, south of Tansen (Palpa District). asked to return to Palpa in 1932 (Morris 1963). As a lie later wrote: matter of fact, at this date, even though the Surveyor "From here. a magnificent view is obtained of the India maps were being publi shed ( its first campaign Palpa country. the home of many of the Magars. a tribe was in 1921-1924),the ex.ctlceati on and ahitudc uf all which forms so important a part of the Gurkhas enlisted the great summits was not known. Disc uss ions on the in our Gurkha regiments. The hand camera I had with location of Machapllcharc or Dhaulagiri. ror example, me wa s unfortunately quile insufficient to reproduce were healed at that time. Major Morris participated in satisfactori ly thc panorama that was unfoldcd bcfore such discussions. thanks to the photographs taken front mc, a scene made more interesting by the facl that no Masyam ridge (cf. Mason 1934 and 1935). European. cenainly of modem tie, had ever witnessed it The photos pre~e nterl here come from the sojourns of beforc." (Bruce & Nonhey 1925) these two recruiting officers and panicularly th e trip in Reco unting this trip in another book in 1928, he 1932; they were taken just before their departure at th e cmphasilcd that: end or a rainy visi t6. "". no European had ever set foot in the Palpa coun These photos were principally used after their publi try. save perhaps an occasional Jesuit missionary in the cation in discuss ions on the nomenclature or l-Jimalayan dim past ... " ( onhey & Morris 1928). summits. but today they interest uS because of the land h is true that at the beginning of the twentieth centu scapes presented in the foreground. Indeed. data on the ry . Nepal was still closed to Westerners. It remained history of land use in Nep~II , ei th er textual or iconogra closed from the beginning of the nineteenth century phic, arc vcry rare. A s far as wc know. these pholos are until 1951. the year of the abolition of the Rana regime the only ones, and the oldest, which testify to methods and the installation uf a parliamentary monarchy. Eve of land use in this region and are therefore very pre rythi ng known about the country came from the cious documents, ror at least two reason s: accounts of a rew explorers and triangulation surveys I. In general. they allow us 10 evaluate the evolution patientl y made under difficult conditions rrom stations of forests. gullying, land use and to bring concrete ele set up in Sikkhn, KUlllaOIl and on the Ganges plain in ments to discussion on environment al degradation. Dis nonhern Indi a'. These data were cross-checked with cussion too often biased, as it s reference is at best the those recorded by a few Indian pandits trained by 1950s aftcr the opening up of the borders- thi s has Montgomerie (1868); di sguised as pilgrims or traders. become in fact "ground zero" (the staning point) for they were able to traverse the country. The data were observations-and at worst. data from the expert' s funher cross-checked with observations made by the short stay, who after a single monsoon , becomes alar Briti sh residents interminently posted in Kathmandu med by the damage resulting from the diluvial rains. since the beginning of the nineteenth century and per Other work (Ives & Messerli 1989) has shown to what manently after the British- epalese peace treaty of point comparing photos taken at intervals of several Segauli in 1816. The laner could not leave the capital years can call into question 0 prinri and erroneous except with special authorisation and were restri cted to ideas. a few well-defined routes. The roads were deliberately 2. These photographs interest us all the more because not maintained, " the idea being that the worse the road, they concern a region close to other research areas in the more difficult it would be for attacking troops to the districts of Gulmi and Argha Kanci where a number enter the country" (White 1920). A sketchy map of this of questions havc been raised relative to sloping fields country thu s took rorm from one survey to another. and trees in the fields (SOladja 1993, 1995). Thcse pho Although there were descriptions of th e Kathm andu tos thus pennit us to suppon some hypotheses which, Valley. the route linlcing the capital to the Indian and up to the present on1y grew ou t of investigations of the Tibetan border and the east' and south border. in oldest people in thc villages. contrast, nearly nothing was known of the rest of the This is why after research in th e London archives, we country. Until 1951 Ncpal remained an "unknown king chose these photos from the iconography department of dom".

41 42 Main differences I 'lIa ges sou thward or Tansen (West epa l) -n the landsca pe (Savebelween hocage 1922 w hich-32 coanndce rn1 \( 97e wholein so cuitlvalme, VI ed area)

AflerMoms. and Nonhey photos, 1922-1932

'--0 __ '\"""

After :'madJ ·a photos, 1997

/ IIATIYA

1- - I Fields ded with trees .) Fields sutO(un ture or khar ban c:::=I~ Grassland pas " Highway - ~~hu~I, lodge, shop -~ UnF0'J.~1 IC k forestIHeath Undslide " Thatch roof. f r.... :: Corrugated Iron roo ~ River th e Royal Geographical Society and have decided from the route leading from Haliya to Tansen. T he within the framework of the programme " Hi story and mountain sides shown in the photos are pri mari ly expo Future of Landscapes in the Himalaya"' , to conduct scd to the soulh. The foregrounds of the two regroup a pJuridi sc ipl inary studi es on th e use of land in this large part of the Masyam V.D.C .. The fi eld s of Hatiya regi un. An ecunomy stu de nt conducted a fi rst survey and Kut Danda appear at firs t on bcnches above whic h related to private trecs on Farms in the hamlet of Kolang the photos were taken. Opposite lhem, th e nanks of a (Masyam V. D.C.)8 in 1996 (Brush! 1997). He spent a hi ll approximately 4 km in length rise from 800 to few days in the fic ld accompan ied by two anthropolo 1500 meters in alti tude, and include [Tom west la cast gists, P. Rami rcz and M. Lecomte-Tilouine. In 1997 an the haml ets of Chidis, Kolang and Beldanda. The hill agronomy stude nt worked on a "diagnostic analys is of comes to an end to the east, outside the boun dary of th e ag rari an sys tem" in th e K oldand a V . D.e. near Masyam, at th e spur of Sundand a in the V.D.C. of Masyam (Bern ard 1997). In order to complete these Thelga. The Hulandi Khola nows at its foo t. East of the studies with surveys on land use, soil , toponymy, geo river, the hill of Dumre village wi lh its distinctl y roun mo rpho logy. etc .. Moniq ue Fo rt and I returned in ded crest can be seen. The wooded summits of Bharke Decembcr 1997 to Masyam V. D.e.. Foll owing in the sh and Chaurthok emerge to the nort h-cast. Wc can foo tsteps of Northey and Morris, we fo un d the approxi onl y co mpare these images in the foregroun d as the mate si tes where their photographs were taken and took backgrou nds showing the town of Tanscn . among

I. North -wes t of Masyam, Chidis ward. Photo taken by Northey fro m th e Masyam ridge, looking northward. November 1922. © Royal Geographical Socicty, London. new ones. We werc thus able to compare photos 65 others, are difficult to make out. years later, and 75 years later fo r onc photo taken by Wc are in the fOOlhills of the Mahabharat, a sublropi Northey. All the photos taken from the Masyam ridge cal monSOon environment. M ean average annual tem by Morris and North ey and used for the co mparison are peratures are around 20°C. Precipitation is on average not reprodu ced in thi s paper. In those presented here 1600 mm per year. Ei ghty to ninety percent of it fa ll s cont msts have been increased wilh Adobe Photoshop during the monsoon. from June to September, season software. The infoITll aliun provided by comparing the during which the rain s can be very violent. more than images was validated by fi eldwork, whi ch is indispen 100 millimetres in 24 hours. For exampl e, on Septem sable to inlerpreling landscapes and lheir evolulion. ber 7, 1959, 409.2 mm of rain was recorded in Tansen; on September 29, 198 1, 288 mm. In addition, lhere is The Area Photographed recurrent seismi ci ty throughout the co untry and stron Morri s' and Northey's photographs were probably gly altered rocky maleri al. All of thi s contributes lO lhe taken from a small promontory 1300 meters in altitude fo rmation of the great densit y of easil y moveable al te above the Masyam bazaar, Haliya, and some of th em, ri les.

44 EBHR 15- 16, 1998-1999

This area of Tansen is chiefly inhabil ed by Magar. 11 for pasture or khar bari (meadows of Gramineae used was a preferred area for recruiting Gurkha so ldiers for thalch roofing or for animal fodder). during Ihe nineteenth cenlury. The small lown of Tan Hence. at the beginning of century. th e forest was sen was il ~ clr an important garrison and commercial already residual and nol very dense. Since Ihen, small ccnlre on the much used trade roule between India and parIs of Ih e foresl have disappeared 10 leave space Ille north of Ihe country. Umi l 1968 il was accessible by today for unirrigated fields as in the lower part uf Bel the foolpalh used by Morris and Northey who passed danda 'o (more reccnlly colonised Ihan Ihe hamlels thJ"ough Hatiya bazaar in Masyam. Since then, travel around it), or for pasture lands, as in C hidis and under lers lake Ihe road crossing Ihe valley noor. the spur of Sundanda. However, there has been no Selllemem in Ihis region was nevertheless apparently massive deforeslati on but rather a "nibbling" on Ihe late. During Ihe reign of Mukunda Sen in Palpa in the fringe. Cul tivaled field. al the beginning of the cenlury sixleenlh ce ntury, the hamlet of Kolang was only a gar have also been abandoned: in Sundanda sloping fields den producing nowers for royal ceremonies. In J 804 cuhivated in 1922 have relurned 10 heathland: below according la the report of a Nepalese informant in ser Kolang the foresl has recolonised Ihe fields which were vice to Ihe British arm y, Ih e roule leading from cu lli vated in 1932. The forcsls on Ihe hills of Barkesh Masyam to Tanscn "ran through forests of sau l trees. and Chaurlhok, of which Ihe upper paris are sacred and there were no villages on the way, but many huts woods, do nol seem to have evolved except the lower and small patches of cu lti vation , and everywhere abun third of the mountain side of Barkcsh. dance of excell enl waler" (SCOII in Military History oJ Easl of Kolang foresl degradalion, which al firsl sighl Nep"l, 1824, r. 34). A few lines further in the same lex I cou ld be attributed to significant deforestation, after "th e mounLainous and woody nature of the district of investigati on reveal s in fact a catastrophic climatic Palpa" are menlioned. The mountain side of Kolang evenl, a tornado, which in Ihe spring of 1983 deslroyed onl y began 10 be cleared on a large scale and colonised a greal number of trees. ill th e middle of (h e nineteenth century9 (L ecomtc Today, forests arc compl etely protected, regenerate Ti loui ne, Bruslc, Srnadja). In 1997 Ihe lotal populalion th em selves, and except in the advent of natural pheno of Masyam was 5392 and popul alion densilY was 193 mena, should not undergo important change s in the residents per sq uare ki lometre. Densily is approximate years to come. ly Ihe same for all Palpa Di"rict and for the adjacenl ei ther khar bad nor grazing grounds have been di strict s of Gulmi and Argha Kanci ~ it is among the converted into cultivated liclds. Like "bald spots" on highesl in Ihe counlry. In Ih e wards of Kolang (i nclu mountain sides, these com munal lands , nevertheless, ding Bcldanda) and Chidis. which can be seen in these play an imporlanl role in fa rm economy. Since 1987 phOIOS, Ihe populalion is respectively 854 and 633. The Ihroughoul Masyam V.D.C., fodder Gramineae have few demographic surveys undertaken at Kolang suggest been tested on the khar bari ~ their seeds arc sold in Iha! the populalion has mulliplied about four times bel Kumalthar (a ce ntre or agricullural innovlltion) ur in wee n Ihe beginning of th e eenlury and loday. olh er vi ll ages. • Eroded land under control Photos oJ Yesterday alld Today Over the centuries, the massive hills characteri sing the When in 1961 , or 29 years after his lasl visil, Morris landscapes of Ihis region have been sculpted by signifi again passed through Masyam. Ihi s lime moving about canl gu ll ying and landslides; today, Ihey are scarred freely, he wrote. "This was the very place in which I over and colonised by vegelalion, bUI Ihe lopography had camped some thirty years or so before, and it see slill clearly alleSIS 10 Ihese evenls. Thus, the hollow med in no way 10 have chan ged." (Morris, 1963). Thir shape and Ih e deep Ihalweg separaling Kolang from Iy-six year>; later in 1997, comparison of pholos shows Beldanda muSI have been caused by major gullying that the changes as a whole are moderate. Nevertheless, which happened about two centuries ago. some new features in the landscape show th at th ere Vivid marks of erosion are scarce in the photos taken have been importanl transform ations in the Iifeslyle of al the beginning of rh e century. Some gullyi ng can Ihe populations in Ihi re.gion. Permanence and change nevertheless be noted in Ihe fo resl of Beldanda. Since dis;cernible in the photos; are in all cac;es most in!i:tructi Ihen new damage has appeared and the 1997 phologra vc. Above all, they prompt us nol to rely on interpreta ph shows a field taken back from the foresl afler 1932; tions often too rapidly made and to be more cautious. it is covered with debris fro m thi s gu ll y erosion. In cul tivating land below an unquesti onably fragile ahhough Permanence and Cha nge of Mountain Sides forested area, Ihe vi ll agers risk losing Iheir harvest. • An unchanged overall structure H owever. for the moment, damage resulting from ero Between 1922-32 and 1997, no change appeared in Ihe sion has been minor. ovemll ~truCl urc of landscapes. Today, as al the begin In the 1922 phOIO, an eroded area is visible belween nin g of the century. th ere is a mosaic of cultivated land Chidis and Kolang. In the 1997 pholo Ihis arca is cove on the crests of rather convex slopes and more or less red with khar bari and a small forest in the lower part. dense woods Or foresls on sleeper slopes. Mountain Two important areas of gullying appeared after 1932. sides are patlerned wilh sloping, rocky land reserved One is located soulh -wesl of Kolang, at the sile called

45 2. Easl of Masyam. Beldanda and Sundanda wards. Pholo laken by Morris from Ihe Masyam ridge. looking northward. November 1932. © Royal Geographical SocielY, London.

Swami dh ara . In 1932 a few groves of trees cove red up la the present. As a matter of fact, th e villagers ques Ihis area all hough some fields had already been sel oul. tioned do nOlthink thallhere are any erosion problems Recent photos show that the bosquclS have been preser at Masyam. ved, bUI a landslide has carried away bOlh Irees and Whatever the case for many years, evolution has not fields. The vi llagers dale il as 1972. The olher gullying co nccmed so much defores tation and takin g over new in the northern part of Chidis. at Raskuli pokhara reculs land a.'i intensification and diversificati on. Thi s is what an old erosion scar in the area which had nOI been culti wc can see if we move in and lake a closer look at the vated; it dales from 1962. landscapc. The phenomenon of erosion, like massive gullying, is an in legral pan of Ih ese landscapes. bUI Ihey seem Permanence and Change illlhe CuL ti vated Sector widely inherent in the physical conditions of the Hima • The permanence of sloping fi elds layan environmenl. The norm is 4 to 5 micro-seisms per In Ihe 1997 phOIOS as in those of 1932 or 1922, unirri week, several seisms of a magnitude above 5 per centu galed fields arc sloping and form vaSI plots of land. ry, and panicularly devastating monsoons at least once They are in contrast with the finely ribboned , terraced each decade. During Ihe years separating Ihe different land which we imagine in tradilional images of rural phOIOS, from 1932 la 1997, Ihis region, like the reSI of Nepal. This landscape of sloping fi elds is Iypical of the the country. experienced seis ms measuring above 5 on districls of Palpa, Gulmi (for Ihe south), Argha Khanci, the Ri chler scale in 1934, 1954, 1966 ... as well as parti Pyuthan and Sa lyan. The old photos corroborate the cularly violenl monsoons in 1959, 1961, 1970, 1975, hypothesis th at such land was cul ti vated from th e 1981, 1991, 1993 and 1995. Taking into accounl popu beginning wi thoulthe construction of lerraccs (Smadja, lation density and environmental constraints, th e appa 1993 and 1995). renl stability of mountain sides rather than their degra A comparison of Ihe pholos reminds us la be wary of dation is surpri sing. over-haslY judgements. In 1997 isolaled, sloping fields The area is fragile and the populations are aware of in the middle of forests, such as those located on Ihe this. The complex mosaic of Ihe landscapes, which as a mountain side of Dumre, are nOl as may be though I al who le have been preserved even if there have been first sight, parcels recently reclai med from Ihe fore t, some changes, corroborate this fact. Any eXlension of i.e., slash and bum fields. The same fields were already cullivaled land can only occur to Ihe detriment of an presenl althe beginning of Ihe century. already precarious equilibrium. whjch seems controlled More generally. when they arc mentioned in litcratu-

46 EBHR 15- 16, 1998- 1999 re. sloping fields are considered as marginal, or an strike observers. Morris and Nonhey, who travelled in intermediary step of four or five years between clearing the region in the same season, make no mention of it in th e land and definitive transformation into lerraces. their brief written descript ion s. nor is it di scernible in Thcsc photos show that after 60 years. the sloping their photos either. This is becau se there was less crop field s still havc thc same shape. variety at thc beginning of the century as confirmed by • Establishing a real bocage farmer su rveys . These sloping fields-which correspond to those called "ridcaux" (curtains] in France-were delimhed at the Indicator-s. agents of change beginning of th e century by a few trees, bushes and The establi shment of the bocage and crop divcrsity arc grasses formin g a small lalus; at the lime, they already phenomena which originated or developed in connec roughly ou tl ined a bocagc landscape. Trees in the fields tion with major upheavals in society: the road and the perh aps already co nveyed the scarcity of wood in an school whi ch appear in the 1997 landscape are two area where forest. had been intensely exploited during important inuil:ators. the las t century. Today the bocage is typical of thi s • Siddhartha Rajmarga r cgin n ~ Indeed, if landscape stru cture has changed very In the 1997 pbotos, a road on the valley Ooor. the Sid Imlc during 60 years with regard to mountain ides, an dhartha Raj marga, can be seen: since 1968 it has linked import<.llll modification has occurred in cultivated areas: Butwal and Pokhara. Its constrllclion has had major the fo re st has sli ghtly receded but therc arc many mQre consequences. Before thi s daLe, merchandi se wru car tree, around the li eld s to th e point 0)' hiding in places ricd Qn the backs of men or mules over the long di s fhe hhuscs cmd the crops. Thu s. many arcas seem more tances betwee n Butwal and Ba glung. and it was an wooded todily than at the beginning of th e century. important economic activilY in the region. At the. begin except padd y fi elds which remain treeless ll . ning of the century, according to Bernard (1997). it Thc!\c Ob!'icrvalions relat ive to a fe w mountain sides mobilised 75 % of the active population for nearly 15 can be ('on firmed on H national scale where since the days each month and up to 25 days during the monsoon 1980:-.. tree s ha ve become increasingly numerous in cul month s. Thi s activity was thu s in competiti on with agri tivated sec tors. Their fodde r, limber and firewood pro culture and animal hu sbandry 12. Thc establishm cnl of a duction repl aces that which in the past came from trees bu s se rvi ce on the new rOute has led to the di sappearan in the forest:-.. M orris' and Nonhey's photos show that ce of portage. To a grcat cxtcnt th e inhabitants of the thi, process had already begun in the region of Tansen region then returned to thcir land lO Iry to increase the in Ihl' IlJ20:-.. Today. in Kolang. there are on average revenu es from th ei r farms: th e result was agricultural 425 private trees per fann (the average surf'ace area of a intensification and diversificati on. Becau se of th e road, farm i:o. 1.2 1 ha), and some farmers have more than 800 the surplus cou ld be so ld in the market at But wa l. (Bru,l" 1997). The trecs. carefull y selcctcd according Spice-dealing, especially ginger and tumeric. has deve 10 111I.:ir use and th ei r pruning ca lendar, show great loped. Wintcr wheat has becn cu lti vated more systema divcrsil) . In addition 10 trees furni shing timber and fire tica ll y. The fallow pcriod has bccome shortcr. Since wood. morc Ihan 50 species of fodder trees have been th en, more manure. and hence anima ls la produce it, coulll ed per faml. and fodder to feed the animals have heeome necessary. The detailcd examinati on of different photos shows Thcse changes have gone hand in hand with the sup Ih<.ll nowadays some parce ls are sepam.ted by a new row pre ssion of com mon land which existed in some areas . Clf trees in order to break the slope. while for others. the Trees (cspecially fodder trces) growing along the bar· l<.I lu s wi lh trees has been done away with in order to ders of the fields have been able 10 regenerate more enlarge the clIhiv3lCO surface. BUI overall , the changes casily . The network of hedges has become denser and arc moderat e and the general shape of th e fields ha.;; fodder crops on the khar bari have mulliplied. This ten been maintained. dency has become still more accentuated since 1992 In the cultivated area, terraced paddy fields and slo with the establishment of milk coll ecti on which could ping fi eld s surrounded by trecs thus make up anolher scarcely be envisaged without road transport. Milk is mosaic which overlaps on the more general mosaic of stored in a refrigcration centre in Biurtung along the mountain sides referred to above. road, then lransponed by lorry to ButwaJ. This innova • Crop diversity tion has led to an increase in the number of animals A ncw mosaic, on the scale of the plots themselves, (buffaloes and cows) on farms and to the planling of uppears in the 1997 photos, as the crops are so varied. more and more fodder trees to feed lhem. At th e beginning of the century, rice, wheat, finger Population movements continue but have taken other millet. mai ze and buckwheat were grown ~ today, on the fonn s. Migrations are not so much seasonal as annual same field and at thc samc timc, up to cight different with a view to securing employment, unen ullskilled, in crops can be seen: mu stard ( tori), Indian rapc India or in olher countries, especially lhose in the Per (.w rsillllg), buckwheat (lIIitlro plrapar), ginger (adwva), sian Gulf. The statisti cs of Masyam V.D.C. indicate tumeric (beslnv"r), tubers (pilldaill), beans (Sillli), and that in 60% of families, at least one person mi grates coriander (dlwniya). In December 1997 they formed a temporarily to look for work in a foreign country. The rema rk ab le coloured patchwork which could oot but few permanent migrations mentioned are those of wcal-

47 thy peasaOls allrac[ed [0 a Iifes[yle [hey judge more sub-units on each farm . Some speak of "sus[ainable" comfortable in [he city or in a bazaar, where [hey run a development or of a "sustainable" means of farmin g hOlel, a restaurant, or a boutique. They [h en sell their land; these melhods have probably been found by vi lI a land and homes. gers in thi s region through diversity, exprcssed at diffe • Schools rent scales of analysis: Ihe mOllDlai n side, Lhe pial of In [he 1997 photos, annther symbol and agent of change land, [he hedge. appears in [he landscape- Lhe school. One of [hem can The area was already widely culli valed al Lhe begin be clcarly di stinguished on Lhe spur of Beldanda. The ning of [he cenLury. Sloping fields-up [0 now conside spread of schooling since [he 1960s has had important red as ephemeral or marginal ha ve [umed out 10 be per repercussions on people's thinking. WiLh regard to agri ennial and represent the nom1 in thi s region . The begin cuilure, .a young work force responsible. among other ning of boeage in [he 19305 already undoubledly me[ things, for watching and feeding the herds. has been lhe popula[ion's needs. 11 onl y became denser 10 cope rem oved from agricultural Lasks. Keeping animals in with protection of forests or the limitation of th e work sheds and [he in crease of fodder Irees near [he farms force which res ul[ed from, among olhcr factors. [he partiall y resolves Ihi s problem as before and afler schooling of childrcn. The school and Ihe road, in faci school Ih e children still cut [he fodder necessary for the litating th e diffusion of new ideas . have been among the animals. but [h cy Slay closc [0 [hcir homes. Ncverthe driving forces for change. Since a few years ago. villa less. educalion presenls Ihe problem of keeping yo uLh ge commillees have laken responsibililY for Lhese on farms which require a large work force to secure the changes; the manage ment of natural resources is increa equilibrium of these fragi le environments. To maintain singly being thought uul and con[rolled. Thus, current th e stability of these environments, depopulation is changes, despite demographic growlh. do nOI Ihem undoubtedly more [0 be feared than strong demogra selves cause environmemal damage. In contrast, they phic pressure. seem to contribute 10 greater stability of the mountain sides. becau se of the stri ct protection of fore sts and a Changes in Habillll denser network of hedges. The comparison of photos does not show [he many Comparing photos is hence very instructive and houses constructed afler 1932 as [hey are hidden by [he should be encouraged in olher areas of epal. They bocagc hedges. However, new structures appear on the only lake us back 10 Ihe firsl dccades of Ihe cenlury. bUI lower part of the mount ai n side s whjch used 10 be mala m leas[ [hey have [he value of pushing back the limils nal and thus comple[el y uninhabited. Villagers culiiv. of Ihe 1950s. a mi sleading reference poinl which up [0 [cd land th ere during [h e day and went back up [0 [heir now has prevail ed in analyses of landscape evolution. homes ut ni gh!. A WHO malari a eradicaLion program H ow fortunate wc are th at th e sky cle~lred a few me beg.n in 1952 afler Ihe opening up of [he borders minules before Ih e departure of orthey and Morris in and permilled Ihe selllemen[ of [he valley noors. December 1932 ... The construction of [he road also played a role in and expanded Ihis process. In 1932 [here was no dwelling Acknowledgemellts along [he Hulandi khola. By 1997 several popula[i on Wo rk and research in the field arc conducted within the fra centres had developed a[ Ih e fOO l of Ihe hills, onc of mework of the programme "Histoirc Cl Dcvcnir des Paysages U which is Ihe Dumr. bazaar where 50 % of [he popula en J-limal aya financed by the programmc "Environllcmenl. li on is originall y from Masyam. This phenomenon of Vie e t Societe" of the CNRS . We wish la thank the members of I.hi s programme for their confidence in us as well as their migrating populalions along Lhe fringes of major roules financial suppon . corrc spond s to a general movement throughou t th e country. Notes: iI should be nOLed [hal in 1932, roofing was primarily I "A Journey towards Palpu" is lhe title given by Northcy to Ihatch, although in Morris' phOIO, one of Lhe houses in Chapler XIV of Th e Gurkhas: Th eir mal/llerS, customs and Ku[ Danda already has a shee[ melal roof. Beeause of cou",r)'. written by Northey and Morris in J 928. ils cost (purchase and carriage) and the necessary cash 2 Masyam is also the spelling of Massiang in the quoled texts. now, corrugated iron was confined to the vi llages of the 3 With regard to such surveys. Tanner (189 1) wrote : ''The Terai closer [0 the Indian border a[ [he beginning of [he difficulties or this class of survey are pretty equally divided century. It is much more common today, but a great between those inherent to the operation and to unfavourable number of thatch roofs stili remain in thi s region. atmospheric conditions. Cloud . mi st. du st-haze. and smokc haze obscure the distant ranges ror. perhaps. nine days out of ten throughout the year. and the observer has to exercise the Changes without Environmental Degradation utmost patience when waiting for the few clear periods during A comparison of Ihe pholos lakeD by Morris and Nor which he can distingui sh lhose femote reatures which it is his Ihey with Ihose taken in 1997 proves lha[ [here have duty tu lay down by accurate observation with his inSlru · been no major upheavals in [he landscape south of Tan ments." sen since Ihe beginning of the cemury. However, [h e 4 Data on eastern Nepal was collected beginning with the landscape has become mOfe complex: the mosaic has Everest expeditions of 1921 ·24. become more marked, subdivided into a mul[iLUde of :) "Owing 10 Th e raCT That Nepal is closed to European travel lers. it has not been possible for us to give a detailed descrip-

48 EBHR 15-16, 1998-1999 lion of the interior of thc country. Hi s Highncss did, howcvcr, 300. a.~ a special favour, very kindly permit us to visit cerlain por Bruslt~:, T", lions of the country on the eastern and western borders, and 1997, "Les arbres prives dans les cxploitations agri from these journeys we were enabled to gain a good general coles d'un village nepalais : le cas de Kolang". Memoi idea of what the rest of the country is like . (Northey & Morris re de DEA, Universit" Paris 10, Namerre. 1928). "Some years after my flrst visit to Kathmandu I was asked by the Government of India to write a handbook about Carter, E. J., Gurkhas. By thi s time I had gaL to know the Maharaja well 1992, "Tree Cultivation on Private Land in the Middle and I wrote and told him that I could nol do ihis job properly Hflls of Nepal: Lessons from some Villager of Dola without seeing for myself w hat the interior of the country was kha District" , Mountain Research and DeveLopm enr, like. To my surpri se he replied that he had given orders for 12, (3), pp. 24 1-255. me to be allowed to go to Massiang. This is a high ridge Gilmour, D. A., beyond the Terai, and although it is no more than twenty or 1988, "Not Seeing the Trees for the Forest: a Reapprai thirty miles inside Nepal it affords a glimpse of a large part of sa l of Ihe Deforestation Crisis in Two Hill Districts of the western pan of the country. By coincidence I ended my Nepal ", Mountain Research and Delleiopmelll, 8 (4), journey in 1961 along this very track and it w ill therefore be more appropriately described later in thi s book. But at the pp. 343-350. lime no other European had been allowed to see even thi s litt Ives, J. D_ & B. Mcsserli, le of the interior." (Morris 1963). 1989. Th e Himalayan dilemma. Reconciling develop· 6 ·'Unfortunately. it was qu ite early in the morning . a fcw ment and conservation. London & New York, The Uni minutes after dawn to be exact - when a clear view was final ted Nations Universi ty. RoutJedge. ly obtained, and even then only for a very few minutes. Mason, K .• Hence. although the snows themselves stood out clearly in the 1934 , "A note on th e Nepal Himalaya", Himala."all early morning sun, the hills in the foreground and middle dis Journal, VI , pp. 81-90. tance were in deep shadow. thereby making it impossible 10 Mason, K. , obtain a photograph in which both the snows and the rest o f the landscape could be c learl y seen." (Northcy 1937). 1935. " otes on Eastern and Central Nepal", Hill/a 7 This programme, which I coordinate. is part of the activities layall Joumul, VU , pp. 83-86 of UPR 299 of the CNRS. About 20 researchers from diffe Military History of Nepal, ren! di sciplines participatc . In studying the relationship of 1824, (repr. 1983 of Papers Respectillg "The Nepaul HimaJayan societies (Nepal and Ladakh) to their natural envi War"). Pan I. New Delhi. Bimla Publishing 1·louse. ronment- the way land is used and resources arc managed Montgomcrie, T. G., over time- thi s programme aims at better understanding {he 1868, "Montgomeric' s Repon of a Route Survey to lalldscapes observed today, their tran sformations and their Lhasa". Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 38. evenlual environmental problems in this area of the world. pp. 129-2 19. 8 V.D.C. : Village Developmcnt Commitec. 9 The most complete fam il y genealogy of the Aslami Magnr. Morris, C. J., the majority group of Kolang . took into account eight genera 1933 , The Gurkhas, (11/ ethl1ology, Delhi , B.R. Publi tions (of about 20 years each) in stalled in Kolang (Lccomtc shing Corporation. Tilouine). 1934. "A glimpse of Unkn own Nepal", Himala),an 10 If onc takes into consideration that theoretically no new Journal. VI. pp. 77-80. land has been cleared since the establishment of the cadastre 1963. A Will/er ill Nepal, London, Rupen Hart-Davis. in 1975, these fields were thu s created between t 933 and Northey, W. B_ & C. J. Morris, 1975. The slight extension of cleared land between the dates 1928 (repr. 1974). The Gurkhas, their manners. CllS of the different ph otos shows that the establishment of the TOms and country. Lundon. cadastre in 1975 was not solely rcsponsible for the limitation of the phenomenon. Northey, W. B., II Their roots cann Ol tolerate irrigation water and the sha· 1937, The land of the Gurkluzs, or (he Himalayan King dows from their foliage would be particularly troublesome for dom of Nepal, Cambridge, Herfer. growing ricc. For further infomlation on the spatial distribu Smadja, J., tion of trees in the fields, cf. Gilmour 1988; Carter 1992; 1993, "Some Questions about Slope and Terraced Smadja 1995. Fields: an Interdisciplinary Issue", pp. 295-309 in G. 12 Was the resulting lack of a work force to cul tivate the land Toflin (ed.) Nepal, Past alld Present, Paris, CNRS cd. the origin for developing sloping rather than terraced fields? 1995, "Sur un e degradation annoncee des milieux ncpa This is possible but cannot be proved with current research. lais : initi atives villagcoiscs pour rcmpiaccr les rc s~ sources forestieres", Natures, Sciences, Socii /is, 3 (3) pp. 190-204. Refermces : Tanner, Ho C. Bo, 1891, "Our Present Knowledge of the Himalayas", Bernard, A., Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, XIII 1997, "Analyse-diagnostic du system. agraire d' une (7). zone de colJi ne du centre Nepal" , Memoire de fin White,Jo, d'.tude en agronomie, INA PG. 1920, "Nepal: A Uttle-known Kingdom", National Brute, C. G. and W. B. Nortbey, Geographic Magazine, XXVll (4). 1925, "Nepal", Geographical Journal, LX (4), pp. 281-