BOOKS

The vast region known as the Himalayas with its valleys and varied altitude is the homeland of the people belonging to several linguistic, cultural and racial stocks. The distinctive physical environment of the mountains restricts economic processes. These basic features can be seen to have contributed to a series of altitudinal zones or niches that can be exploited in different ways. If man is to utilize environment fully, this vertical stratification of resources implies mobility among them. Transhumance is the seasonal movement from one ecological zone to another. Transhumance is a form of human adaptation to marginal and spatially variant environments directed towards optimizing the use of natural endowments changing overtime and varying in space. In the present volume an attempt is made to describe three transhumants groups - Changpas of Ladakh, Gaddis ofHimachal Pradesh and Bhutias of Sikkim.