The Himalaya range has long been a site for mountaineering and exploration as well as pilgrimage, mountain worship and high altitude farming and pastoral life. Kawa Karpo (Meili Snow Mountain) in Southwestern China is a prominent site for pilgrims from across the Tibetan plateau, and increasingly popular with Han Chinese tourists as well. Government plans for roads to facilitate tourism are likely to have major effects on remote villages. Similar tourism promotion is slated for small mountain communities in Zanskar, in northern India. The fate of community development and mountain worship in these villages provide lessons for tourism, politics and development issues across Southwest China and the Himalaya region overall.

About the Lecturers: Julie Tate-Libby, PhD, Instructor of Anthropology and Sociology, Wenatchee Valley College & James Loucky, Professor of Anthropology at WWU will offer a comparative response