An Ever-Changing Place- A Year Among Monkeys and Sherpas in the Himalayas (An Old and Rare Book)

About the Book When John and Naomi Bishop went to the tiny Nepalese village of Melemchi to conduct a scientific study of the shy and elegant langur monkey, they discovered a harmonious symbiosis of man, animal, forest and mountainside. An Ever-Changing Place is the story of their discoveries-Melemchi, a Sherpa village fifty miles on foot from the nearest road, the Bishops' home for a year; its people, who live by farming and seminomadic herding, wandering the steep slopes with herds of zum (cow-yak hybrids); a culture governed by seasonal changes and ancient rituals and celebrations; and the snow monkeys, the only other primates on the mountain. These Himala yan langurs have responded to the temperate climate with a comparatively easygoing social style. As the Bishops observed them day after day in the forests around Melemchi or from the flat rock roof of a Newari hermit's house where the langurs came to play in the sun, they came to recognize members of the troop: Boris,, gruff-looking but good-natured, an old male with an always-wary eye toward the Bishops' interest in the troop; Honoria, a noncon formist who even gave birth off-schedule; Myopic, a squint-eyed male caught in the ambiguities of mat uration.

When they were not working in the forest, the Bishops were absorbed in the busy life of Melemchi, participating in the local festivals and the harvest; consulting the spirit medium; discovering some of the time-honored customs-like marriage by kidnap ping-firsthand; and learning cookery, Sherpa style) (shelf fungus curry and stewed fiddlehead ferns)," from their guide and friend, Mingma.

An Ever-Changing Place is the story of a couple's? stay in a remote and beautiful place, a story of ad venture, hardship, great beauty and quiet reflection. It is the story of a stay that was "only long enough) to say we had really been."

Preface ARSHADHARA, a mythic Indian monarch, ordered each person in his kingdom to bring a pint of oil and a cord of wood to immo late the yogi who had taken his daughter. The huge fire burned. seven days but left no ashes-instead the king found a lake where the pyre had been, and seated on a large lotus blossom in the center of the lake was Guru Rimpoche Padme-Sambhava in the form of an eight-year-old child. Credited with bringing Bid dhism to Tibet, Guru Rimpoche wandered widely in the Himala 1, working miracles and leaving shrines in every valley. This great teacher of esoteric doctrines still inhabits the earth in a variety of guises, helping people toward enlightenment.

In the Helambu valley of Nepal, it is said that a fierce dragon once guarded the river crossing between Melemchi and Take Ghyang, its sister village on the opposing side of the valley; no crossing was made without payment of human lives. Accosted by the dragon, Guru Rimpoche transformed the monster to a boulder, which now stands mute guard over the bridge. Halfway up the steep climb to Melemchi, he rested and his hat left an imprint on a stone. Within sight of the village, he paused to make tea and his utensils left marks.

**Contents and Sample Pages**