Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. xiv, 387 pp. (Maps, B&W photos., illustrations.) US$35.00, paper. ISBN 978-0-226-42894-9.
In this deeply researched and beautifully written book, Mark Liechty unpacks how “global geopolitics and Western geo-imaginary” rather than the “intrinsic allure of Kathmandu” (and Nepali Himalayas) canonized Nepal into a “fabled world travel” destination. Liechty, in the introductory chapter, brilliantly traces the beginnings of that story to the late nineteenth-century anti-establishment movements like Spiritualism and Theosophy. These movements particularly projected Western countercultural fantasies of an idealized pre-industrial society, ancient mystical wisdom, and pristine landscapes on Tibet, Buddhism, and the Himalaya respectively. But the simultaneous closing off of Tibet in the wake of the 1959 Chinese invasion, and the opening of Nepal after 1951 following the end of the Rana regime, transmogrified those sedimented “fantasies, projections, and longings that had been focused on Tibet” to Nepal (41). At the same time, the imagination of Nepal remained far from being monolithic. Far Out, divided into twelve well-organized chapters, traces the key events, individuals, and ideas that played pivotal roles in generating differing notions of and longings for Nepal and Kathmandu at distinctive stages in the subsequent decades of the twentieth century.
Liechty identifies three foundational stages in the making of Nepal as a new destination for global tourism, which is also reflected in the organization of the book into three parts. The first stage was deeply imbricated in the global geopolitics of the Cold War and the internal Nepali national building project under King Mahendra. It was the coronation of King Mahendra in 1956, Liechty argues, that cemented “Kathmandu’s [and Nepal’s] antique and Oriental charms to an audience predisposed to dreams of Shangri-La” (44). In addition to affirming Nepal’s sovereignty as a nascent nation-state in the contested political landscape of South Asia, the coronation helped create some of the earliest accouterments of tourism in the world’s only Hindu kingdom. However, it was not the Nepali state, but a handful of highly entrepreneurial foreigners who shepherded the early trajectory of Nepali tourism. Boris Lissanevitch and John Coapman appear as key protagonists during what Liechty calls the “golden age” of tourism. The former at the helm of the Royal Hotel in Kathmandu and the latter from Tiger Tops Hotel in Chitwan, catered to elderly elite western tourists who longed for the Oriental opulence and attractions of the mountains, jungle safaris, and big game hunting in Nepal. The growing fascination of the mountains, together with the attendant Yeti mania (chapter 3), made Nepal highly visible to a global audience, thereby setting the stage for the next phase of tourism.
Five chapters in Part Two offer rich and multifaceted ethnographic and historical accounts of the processes and people that catapulted Nepal as a hippie paradise after the mid-1960s. Liechty argues that three key developments were pivotal to this second transformation. Cheap and comfortable air travel to Nepal, expansion of the middle class in Western societies, and the youth rebellions of the 1960s steadily increased the number of tourists to Nepal. As a result, compared to the 2,000 people who had visited Nepal in 1958, 40,000 arrived in Nepal in 1969. Those arriving after the 1970s were also overwhelmingly young budget travelers. A large number of this new group flocking to Nepal was attracted “to the exotic, cannabis-friendly, cheap, and welcoming streets of Kathmandu” (160). Many beatnik tourists especially sought refuge on the outskirts of central Kathmandu, away from the political and social turmoil in their societies, often staying for months at a time. In doing so, they “radically transformed the use and meaning of urban architectural spaces” (163). Unlike in the first stage, the early pioneers who serviced the beatnik tourists were primarily Nepalis on the margins of the caste hierarchy. People like Bishnu Dhoj Shahi, an untouchable, put his language and culinary skills to great entrepreneurial success in serving beatnik tourists through his tea shop. Tibetan refugees and Newar families made similar early forays into the service industry by turning their homes into hotels and restaurants to accommodate the growing number of tourists. Ravi’s Spot, named after its owner Ravi, which opened in 1969, perhaps more than any other entity “shifted budget tourism’s center of gravity in Kathmandu” (180). It played a crucial role in popularizing Freak Street and became a meeting point for cultural encounters between Western and Nepali youths.
The US rapprochement with China under Nixon and the declining flow of foreign aid to Nepal after 1972, according to Liechty, prepared grounds for the third stage. If tourism had hitherto happened to Nepal “driven by the longings of foreigners,” under King Birendra, the state actively began to “manage and market its tourist image” (272). Chapter eleven discusses how that process unfolded with a crackdown on hippies and the de-legalization of cannabis under international pressure in 1973. The state, eyeing the potential for revenue generation from the tourism sector, subsequently promoted Nepal as a new destination for “eco-adventure tourism” with a particular focus on trekking by downplaying “the country as a traditional sightseeing tour destination” (321). These developments led to the rise of Thamel as a new tourist and major commercial hub in Kathmandu, away from Freak Street. Concurrently, the image of Nepal underwent a notable shift. Oriental fantasies and longings for the enlightenment of the earlier era were increasingly replaced with visions of high mountains and high adventures.
It would have been interesting to hear what the author had to say about the changing landscape of tourism in contemporary Nepal, where propelled by prosperity and middle-class dispositions, domestic adventure tourism is on the verge of eclipsing the international crowd. With that being said, Liechty’s mastery of an immense body of scholarship and skillful weaving of Nepali history with that of the world through the lens of tourist encounters, makes significant contributions in the fields of global history, South Asian studies, Nepal studies, anthropology, and intellectual history.
Sanjog Rupakheti
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, USA