Download or read book The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment written by Philippus Wester and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-01-04 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access volume is the first comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. It comprises important scientific research on the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable mountain development and will serve as a basis for evidence-based decision-making to safeguard the environment and advance people’s well-being. The compiled content is based on the collective knowledge of over 300 leading researchers, experts and policymakers, brought together by the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP) under the coordination of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). This assessment was conducted between 2013 and 2017 as the first of a series of monitoring and assessment reports, under the guidance of the HIMAP Steering Committee: Eklabya Sharma (ICIMOD), Atiq Raman (Bangladesh), Yuba Raj Khatiwada (Nepal), Linxiu Zhang (China), Surendra Pratap Singh (India), Tandong Yao (China) and David Molden (ICIMOD and Chair of the HIMAP SC). This First HKH Assessment Report consists of 16 chapters, which comprehensively assess the current state of knowledge of the HKH region, increase the understanding of various drivers of change and their impacts, address critical data gaps and develop a set of evidence-based and actionable policy solutions and recommendations. These are linked to nine mountain priorities for the mountains and people of the HKH consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals. This book is a must-read for policy makers, academics and students interested in this important region and an essentially important resource for contributors to global assessments such as the IPCC reports.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Snow Ice and Glaciers written by Vijay P. Singh and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-06-29 with total page 1301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The earth’s cryosphere, which includes snow, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, ice shelves, sea ice, river and lake ice, and permafrost, contains about 75% of the earth’s fresh water. It exists at almost all latitudes, from the tropics to the poles, and plays a vital role in controlling the global climate system. It also provides direct visible evidence of the effect of climate change, and, therefore, requires proper understanding of its complex dynamics. This encyclopedia mainly focuses on the various aspects of snow, ice and glaciers, but also covers other cryospheric branches, and provides up-to-date information and basic concepts on relevant topics. It includes alphabetically arranged and professionally written, comprehensive and authoritative academic articles by well-known international experts in individual fields. The encyclopedia contains a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from the atmospheric processes responsible for snow formation; transformation of snow to ice and changes in their properties; classification of ice and glaciers and their worldwide distribution; glaciation and ice ages; glacier dynamics; glacier surface and subsurface characteristics; geomorphic processes and landscape formation; hydrology and sedimentary systems; permafrost degradation; hazards caused by cryospheric changes; and trends of glacier retreat on the global scale along with the impact of climate change. This book can serve as a source of reference at the undergraduate and graduate level and help to better understand snow, ice and glaciers. It will also be an indispensable tool containing specialized literature for geologists, geographers, climatologists, hydrologists, and water resources engineers; as well as for those who are engaged in the practice of agricultural and civil engineering, earth sciences, environmental sciences and engineering, ecosystem management, and other relevant subjects.
Download or read book The K firs of the Hindu Kush written by Sir George Scott Robertson and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 684 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kafiristan, or "The Land of the Infidels," was a region of eastern Afghanistan where the inhabitants had retained their traditional pagan culture and religion and rejected conversion to Islam. The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush is a detailed ethnographic account of the Kafirs, written by George Scott Robertson (1852-1916), a British administrator in India. With the approval of the government of India, Robertson made a preliminary visit to Kafiristan in October 1889, and then lived among the Kafirs for almost a year, from October 1890 to September 1891. Robertson describes his journey from Chitral (in present-day Pakistan) to Kafiristan and the difficulties he encountered in traveling about the country and in gaining information about the Kafir culture and religion. The latter, he writes, "is a somewhat low form of idolatry, with an admixture of ancestor-worship and some traces of fire-worship also. The gods and goddesses are numerous, and of varying degrees of importance or popularity." Robertson describes religious practices and ceremonies, the tribal and clan structure of Kafir society, the role of slavery, the different villages in the region, and everyday life and social customs, including dress, diet, festivals, sport, the role of women in society, and much else that he observed first-hand. The book is illustrated with drawings, and it concludes with a large fold-out topographical map, which shows the author's route in Kafiristan. In 1896 the ruler of Afghanistan, Amir 'Abd al-Rahman Khan (reigned 1880-1901), conquered the area and brought it under Afghan control. The Kafirs became Muslims and in 1906 the region was renamed Nuristan, meaning the "Land of Light," a reference to the enlightenment brought by Islam.
Download or read book Pagan Christmas written by Augusto S. Cacopardo and published by Gingko Library. This book was released on 2017-02-15 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This authoritative work sheds light on the religious world of the Kalasha people of the Birir valley in the Chitral district of Pakistan, focusing on their winter feasts, which culminate every year in a great winter solstice festival. The Kalasha are not only the last example of a pre-Islamic culture in the Hindu Kush and Karakorum mountains but also practice the last observable example anywhere in the world of an archaic Indo-European religion. In this book, Augusto S. Cacopardo takes readers inside the world of the Kalasha people. Cacopardo outlines the history and culture of this ancient but still extant people. Exploring an array of relevant literature, he enriches our understanding of their practices and beliefs through illuminating comparisons with both the Indian religious world and the religious folklore of Europe. Bringing together several disciplinary approaches and drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, this book offers the first extended study of this little-known but fascinating Kalasha community. It will take its place as a standard international reference source on the anthropology, ethnography, and history of religions in Pakistan and Central South Asia.
Download or read book Murder in the Hindu Kush written by Tim Hannigan and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-04-11 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a bright July morning in 1870 the British explorer George Hayward was brutally murdered high in the Hindu Kush. Who was he, what had brought him to this wild spot, and why was he killed? Told in full for the first time, this is the gripping tale of Hayward's journey from a Yorkshire childhood to a place at the forefront of the 'Great Game' between the British Raj and the Russian Empire. Driven by 'an insane desire' Hayward crossed the Western Himalayas, tangled with despotic chieftains and ended up on the wrong side of both the Raj and the mighty Maharaja of Kashmir. Tim Hannigan explores the conspiracies and controversies that surrounded his death, travelling in Hayward's footsteps to bring the story up to date, and to reveal how the echoes of the Great Game still reverberate across Central Asia in the twenty-first century.
Download or read book The Limits of Empire in Ancient Afghanistan written by Richard E. Payne and published by Harrassowitz. This book was released on 2020 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The territory of modern Afghanistan provided a center - and sometimes the center - for a succession of empires, from the Achaemenid Persians in the 6th century BCE until the Sasanian Iranians in the 7th century CE. And yet these regions most frequently appear as comprising a "crossroads" in accounts of their premodern history. This volume explores how successive imperial regimes established enduring forms of domination spanning the highlands of the Hindu Kush, essentially ungovernable territories in the absence of the technologies of the modern state. The modern term "Afghanistan" likely has its origins in an ancient word for highland regions and peoples resistant to outside rule. The volume's contributors approach the challenge of explaining the success of imperial projects within a highland political ecology from a variety of disciplinary perspectives with their respective evidentiary corpora, notably history, anthropology, archaeology, numismatics, and philology. The Limits of Empire models the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration necessary to produce persuasive accounts of an ancient Afghanistan whose surviving material and literary evidence remains comparatively limited. It shows how Afghan-centered imperial projects co-opted local elites, communicated in the idioms of local cultures, and created administrative archipelagoes rather than continuous territories. Above all, the volume makes plain the interest and utility in placing Afghanistan at the center, rather than the periphery, of the history of ancient empires in West Asia.
Download or read book Landslide Hazard Mitigation in the Hindu Kush Himalayas written by Tianchi Li and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributed articles.
Download or read book Our Women are Free written by Wynne Maggi and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the lives of women among the Kalasha, a tiny, vibrant community in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province
Download or read book The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush written by Max Klimburg and published by Franz Steiner Verlag. This book was released on 1999 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Himalayan Glaciers written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientific evidence shows that most glaciers in South Asia's Hindu Kush Himalayan region are retreating, but the consequences for the region's water supply are unclear, this report finds. The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is the location of several of Asia's great river systems, which provide water for drinking, irrigation, and other uses for about 1.5 billion people. Recent studies show that at lower elevations, glacial retreat is unlikely to cause significant changes in water availability over the next several decades, but other factors, including groundwater depletion and increasing human water use, could have a greater impact. Higher elevation areas could experience altered water flow in some river basins if current rates of glacial retreat continue, but shifts in the location, intensity, and variability of rain and snow due to climate change will likely have a greater impact on regional water supplies. Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security makes recommendations and sets guidelines for the future of climate change and water security in the Himalayan Region. This report emphasizes that social changes, such as changing patterns of water use and water management decisions, are likely to have at least as much of an impact on water demand as environmental factors do on water supply. Water scarcity will likely affect the rural and urban poor most severely, as these groups have the least capacity to move to new locations as needed. It is predicted that the region will become increasingly urbanized as cities expand to absorb migrants in search of economic opportunities. As living standards and populations rise, water use will likely increase-for example, as more people have diets rich in meat, more water will be needed for agricultural use. The effects of future climate change could further exacerbate water stress. Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security explains that changes in the availability of water resources could play an increasing role in political tensions, especially if existing water management institutions do not better account for the social, economic, and ecological complexities of the region. To effectively respond to the effects of climate change, water management systems will need to take into account the social, economic, and ecological complexities of the region. This means it will be important to expand research and monitoring programs to gather more detailed, consistent, and accurate data on demographics, water supply, demand, and scarcity.
Download or read book Bumbling Through the Hindu Kush A Memoir of Fear and Kindness in Afghanistan written by Chris Woolf and published by . This book was released on 2021-10-04 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when a regular person accidentally finds themselves lost in the middle of a war? In 1991, Chris Woolf travelled to Afghanistan to visit a BBC colleague. They hitched a ride with an aid convoy and bumbled straight into the war.
Download or read book Impact of Global Changes on Mountains written by Velma I. Grover and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2014-12-19 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mountain regions encompass nearly 24 percent of the total land surface of the earth and are home to approximately 12 percent of the world's population. Their ecosystems play a critical role in sustaining human life both in the highlands and the lowlands. During recent years, resource use in high mountain areas has changed mainly in response to the
Download or read book A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush written by Eric Newby and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the maps in this title are best viewed on a tablet device. A classic of travel writing, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is Eric Newby’s iconic account of his journey through one of the most remote and beautiful wildernesses on earth.
Download or read book Warning Signals from the Apple Valleys of the Hindu Kush Himalayas written by Uma Partap and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With reference to the Himalayan mountain ranges; a study.
Download or read book Ethnobotany of the Himalayas written by Ripu M. Kunwar and published by Springer. This book was released on 2021-12-01 with total page 2075 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research in recent years has increasingly shifted away from purely academic research, and into applied aspects of the discipline, including climate change research, conservation, and sustainable development. It has by now widely been recognized that “traditional” knowledge is always in flux and adapting to a quickly changing environment. Trends of globalization, especially the globalization of plant markets, have greatly influenced how plant resources are managed nowadays. While ethnobotanical studies are now available from many regions of the world, no comprehensive encyclopedic series focusing on the worlds mountain regions is available in the market. Scholars in plant sciences worldwide will be interested in this website and its dynamic content. The field (and thus the market) of ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology has grown considerably in recent years. Student interest is on the rise, attendance at professional conferences has grown steadily, and the number of professionals calling themselves ethnobotanists has increased significantly (the various societies, like the Society for Economic Botany, the International Society of Ethnopharmacology, the Society of Ethnobiology, and the International Society for Ethnobiology currently have thousands of members). Growth has been most robust in BRIC countries. This new MRW on Ethnobotany of the Himalayas takes advantage of the increasing international interest and scholarship in the field of mountain research. It includes the best and latest research on a full range of descriptive, methodological, theoretical, and applied research on the most important plants in the Himalayas. Each contribution is scientifically rigorous and contributes to the overall field of study.
Download or read book Among the Mountains written by Wilfred Thesiger and published by HarperPerennial. This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wilfred Thesiger, this century's greatest living explorer, recalls his travels among the mountain ranges of Asia.
Download or read book The Religions of the Hindukush written by Karl Jettmar and published by Humanities Press. This book was released on 1990-12-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
