Tigers of the Snow and Other Virtual Sherpas : An Ethnography of Himalayan Encounters

Sherpas Are Portrayed By Westerners As Heroic Mountain Guides, Or Tigers Of The Snow, As Buddhist Adepts, And As A People In Touch With Intimate Ways Of Life That Seem No Longer Available In The Western World. In This Book, Vincanne Adams Explores How Attempts To Characterize An Authentic Sherpa Are Complicated By Western Fascination With Sherpas And By The Sherpas' Desires To Live Up To Western Portrayals Of Them. Noting That Diplomatic Aides At World Summit Meetings Go By The Name Sherpa, As Do A Van In The U.k. Built For Rough Terrains And A Software Product From Silicon Valley, Adams Examines The Authenticating Effects Of This Mobile Signifier On A Community Of Himalayan Sherpas Who Live At The Base Of Mount Everest, Nepal, And Its Deauthenticating Effects On Anthropological Representation. This Book Speaks Not Only To Anthropologists Concerned With Ethnographic Portrayals Of Otherness But Also To Those Working In Cultural Studies Who Are Concerned With Ethnographically Grounded Analyses Of Representations. Throughout Adams Illustrates How One Might Undertake An Ethnography Of Transnationally Produced Subjects By Using The Notion Of Virtual Identities. In A Manner Informed By Both Buddhism And Shamanism, Virtual Sherpas Are Always Both Real And Distilled Reflections Of The Desires That Produce Them. Introduction: Lament For Pasang 3 -- Chapter 1 Sherpas In Mirrors 39 -- Chapter 2 Making Modern Sherpas 79 -- Chapter 3 Buddhist Sherpas As Others 121 -- Chapter 4 The Intimacy Of Shamanic Sherpas 171 -- Chapter 5 Seduction And Simulative Power In The Himalayas: Staying Sherpa 206 -- Conclusion: Virtual Sherpas In Circulation 233 -- Appendix A Khentse Rinpoche Lecture, Tengboche, 1987 243 -- Appendix B Excerpts From The Stages Of Repelling Demons Based On The Heart Sutra, The Summary Of The Vast, Intermediate, And Condensed Mothers, / Donald S. Lopez, Jr. 247 -- Appendix C Musings On Textuality And Truth 251 -- Appendix D Production/seduction 257. Vincanne Adams. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Orthographic Note INTRODUCTION Lament for Pasang CHAPTER ONE Sherpas in Mirrors CHAPTER TWO Making Modern Sherpas CHAPTER THREE Buddhist Sherpas as Others CHAPTER FOUR The Intimacy of Shamanic Sherpas CHAPTER FIVE Seduction and Simulative Power in the Himalayas : Staying Sherpa CONCLUSION Virtual Sherpas in Circulation APPENDIX A Khentse Rinpoche Lecture, Tengboche 1987 APPENDIX B Excerpts from "The Stages of Repelling Demons Based on the Heart Sutra, the Summary of the Vast, Intermediate, and Condensed Mothers" APPENDIX C Musings on Textuality and Truth APPENDIX D Production/Seduction Notes Glossary of Sherpa Terms Bibliography Index