E8: Human Nature - Walking In Nepal - Thomas Bell

The Himalaya is not a wilderness! For thousands of years the landscape has formed the region's history, and been formed by people with their flocks, ploughs, and imaginations in turn.

Religion, economy, and politics were derived from the land -- and made their mark on it.

In his innovative book Human Nature, Thomas Bell mixes travel and anthropology to write a history of Nepal as a cultural history of the environment and compares it to Western environmental ideas.Thomas Bell lived in Kathmandu for almost 20 years, working as a foreign correspondent, UN political officer and human rights researcher.