Himalayan Kingdom Bhutan

Predominantly on contemporary politics of Bhutan.

BHUTAN is a smaller companion volume to the world's largest published book, the 5x7' photographic book called BHUTAN. This book opens to nearly three feet, and offers an eyeful of imagery from several expeditions across the legendary mountain kingdom. Teams from MIT and Friendly Planet traveled extensively with two young people, Choki Lhamo (age 14, a girl from Trongsa who aspires to be a doctor) and Gyelsey Loday (also 14, son of the head lama in far-off Phongmey). This book shares a bit of their beautiful corner of the world. Proceeds are largely tax-deductible and are donated to help Bhutan's schools and scholars.

The Himalayan Kingdom is home to some of the most spectacular mountains in the world. Fascinating civilisations with long and glorious histories have sprung-up amidst the dizzying snow-capped heights and the dry, windswept plains beyond them. Sandwiched between China and India, the rich cultures of Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim and Ladakh have nonetheless developed their own unique place in human history, and continue to flourish into the 21st century. Visitors often remark how everything in the Himalayas is tinged with the divine, how the mountains are a fitting backdrop to the teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, all of which converge in the Himalayas. Here, where mountain meets man, and man God, eternal dramas are played out: dramas in which the seasons bring rain, the earth yields produce, and man celebrates nature's bounty: dramas in which good and evil clash: dramas of birth, death, reincarnation, enlightenment and spiritual release.