Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal

Westerners have long imagined the Himalayas as the world’s last untouched place and a repository of redemptive power and wisdom. Beatniks, hippie seekers, spiritual tourists, mountain climbers—diverse groups of people have traveled there over the years, searching for their own personal Shangri-La. In Far Out, Mark Liechty traces the Western fantasies that captured the imagination of tourists in the decades after World War II, asking how the idea of Nepal shaped the everyday cross-cultural interactions that it made possible. Emerging from centuries of political isolation but eager to engage the world, Nepalis struggled to make sense of the hordes of exotic, enthusiastic foreigners. They quickly embraced the phenomenon, however, and harnessed it to their own ends by building tourists’ fantasies into their national image and crafting Nepal as a premier tourist destination. Liechty describes three distinct phases: the postwar era, when the country provided a Raj-like throwback experience for rich Americans; Nepal’s emergence as an exotic outpost of hippie counterculture in the 1960s; and its rebranding into a hip adventure destination, which began in the 1970s and continues today. He shows how Western projections of Nepal as an isolated place inspired creative enterprises and, paradoxically, allowed locals to participate in the global economy. Based on twenty-five years of research, Far Out blends ethnographic analysis, a lifelong passion for Nepal, and a touch of humor to produce the first comprehensive history of what tourists looked for—and found—on the road to Kathmandu.

Business & Money

Liechty, Mark

Industries

University of Chicago Press

Westerners have long imagined the Himalayas as the world’s last untouched place and a repository of redemptive power and wisdom. Beatniks, hippie seekers, spiritual tourists, mountain climbers—diverse groups of people have traveled there over the years, searching for their own personal Shangri-La. In Far Out, Mark Liechty traces the Western fantasies that captured the imagination of tourists in the decades after World War II, asking how the idea of Nepal shaped the everyday cross-cultural interactions that it made possible. Emerging from centuries of political isolation but eager to engage the world, Nepalis struggled to make sense of the hordes of exotic, enthusiastic foreigners. They quickly embraced the phenomenon, however, and harnessed it to their own ends by building tourists’ fantasies into their national image and crafting Nepal as a premier tourist destination. Liechty describes three distinct phases: the postwar era, when the country provided a Raj-like throwback experience for rich Americans; Nepal’s emergence as an exotic outpost of hippie counterculture in the 1960s; and its rebranding into a hip adventure destination, which began in the 1970s and continues today. He shows how Western projections of Nepal as an isolated place inspired creative enterprises and, paradoxically, allowed locals to participate in the global economy. Based on twenty-five years of research, Far Out blends ethnographic analysis, a lifelong passion for Nepal, and a touch of humor to produce the first comprehensive history of what tourists looked for—and found—on the road to Kathmandu.

Suitably Modern: Making Middle-Class Culture in a New Consumer Society

Suitably Modern traces the growth of a new middle class in Kathmandu as urban Nepalis harness the modern cultural resources of mass media and consumer goods to build modern identities and pioneer a new sociocultural space in one of the world's "least developed countries."
 Since Nepal's "opening" in the 1950s, a new urban population of bureaucrats, service personnel, small business owners, and others have worked to make a space between Kathmandu's old (and still privileged) elites and its large (and growing) urban poor. Mark Liechty looks at the cultural practices of this new middle class, examining such phenomena as cinema and video viewing, popular music, film magazines, local fashion systems, and advertising. He explores three interactive and mutually constitutive ethnographic terrains: a burgeoning local consumer culture, a growing mass-mediated popular imagination, and a recently emerging youth culture. He shows how an array of local cultural narratives--stories of honor, value, prestige, and piety--flow in and around global narratives of "progress," modernity, and consumer fulfillment. Urban Nepalis simultaneously adopt and critique these narrative strands, braiding them into local middle-class cultural life.
 Building on both Marxian and Weberian understandings of class, this study moves beyond them to describe the lived experience of "middle classness"--how class is actually produced and reproduced in everyday practice. It considers how people speak and act themselves into cultural existence, carving out real and conceptual spaces in which to produce class culture.

Humor & Entertainment

Princeton University Press

Product Description This book explores why Nepal's hydropower sector is one of its few development success stories. Unlike most other 'developing' countries, in Nepal local firms design and build hydropower facilities using Nepali engineers, builders and labor. Nepal has largely avoided the trap whereby most poor countries are forced to accept energy infrastructure projects that are foreign designed, funded and built – typically resulting in debt, dependency and unsustainability. It traces the struggle between two competing development paradigms: one that emphasizes gradual national human capacity building – at the expense of speed and efficiency – and another that emphasizes rapid, large-scale infrastructure building – at the risk of unsustainability and dependency. At stake is whether what passes for 'development' benefits the countries in which it occurs, or the banks and investors that finance capital-intensive projects. What Went Right brings a vision for sustainable development into vigorous conversation with development strategies that have proven to be less productive. Review 'This book tells a remarkable story of the growth of local hydro power development in Nepal. It formally starts in 1963 with an agreement between the Nepal government and a Christian organization, the United Mission to Nepal, for the establishment of the Institute of Technology and Industrial Development in Butwal. The driving force in this was Odd Hoftun, an experienced applied engineer from Norway. It was a time when development economists were discussing the pros and cons of quick turn key infrastructural projects with external consultants, etc. or go a slower route and build a local engineering capability to construct and manage institutions in the hydro power sector. Odd Hoftun and Nepali colleagues persisted with the second route and this book tells what happened from the early days to the present time. The book focuses on the story of the private construction company, the Butwal Power Company, which emerged from the early initiatives. This history includes public and private take overs, major changes in government policy, local and foreign investors and much, much more. What went right tells this story in careful detail and shows the influence of BPC on Nepal’s current hydro sector. The book is a “page turner” as Liechty takes us from one set of major events in construction and politics to the next … and the influence of BPC’s legacy is still unfolding in major ways.' Stephen Biggs, SOAS University of London'Nepal's hydropower sector has been a flame that has, over the last seven decades, both illuminated her development space and attracted exuberant moths (national and international) to their doom. In this book, Leichty describes the success of a remarkably innovative moth whose story has not been properly told before. It is that of an alternative pathway whose relevance has only grown as the conventional development landscape faces the end of the Age of Aid and the rise of one of Climate Change Concerns. It must be read, not just by Nepali hydrocrats but by all development professionals in international agencies as well.' Dipak Gyawali, Academician, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology & Former Minister of Water Resources of Nepal'Prof. Liechty skillfully tells the inspirational story of alternative development of hydropower infrastructure in Nepal. Over the course of five decades Odd Hoftun and Balaram Pradhan did not just build power projects, through the Butwal Power Company, but laid the foundation for a vibrant domestic power sector in Nepal with thousands of competent engineers and technicians, over a hundred active Independent Power Producers, and dozens of construction and manufacturing companies and engineering consultancy firms. This book is a must read for development practitioners and aid agencies interested in critically examining how to get the best returns from international development assistance.' Bikash

What Went Right: Sustainability Versus Dependence in Nepal's Hydropower Development

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Cambridge University Press

This book explores why Nepal's hydropower sector is one of its few development success stories. Unlike most other 'developing' countries, in Nepal local firms design and build hydropower facilities using Nepali engineers, builders and labor. Nepal has largely avoided the trap whereby most poor countries are forced to accept energy infrastructure projects that are foreign designed, funded and built - typically resulting in debt, dependency and unsustainability. It traces the struggle between two competing development paradigms: one that emphasizes gradual national human capacity building - at the expense of speed and efficiency - and another that emphasizes rapid, large-scale infrastructure building - at the risk of unsustainability and dependency. At stake is whether what passes for 'development' benefits the countries in which it occurs, or the banks and investors that finance capital-intensive projects. What Went Right brings a vision for sustainable development into vigorous conversation with development strategies that have proven to be less productive.

Real Estate

Out Here in Kathmandu: Modernity on the Global Periphery

Vajra Bookshop

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Liechty, Mark. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Liechty, Mark

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Liechty, Mark. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal

Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal

Suitably Modern: Making Middle-Class Culture in a New Consumer Society

Suitably Modern: Making Middle-Class Culture in a New Consumer Society

What Went Right: Sustainability Versus Dependence in Nepal's Hydropower Development

What Went Right: Sustainability Versus Dependence in Nepal's Hydropower Development

Out Here in Kathmandu: Modernity on the Global Periphery