American anthropologist Ernestine McHugh arrived in the foothills of the
Annapurna mountains in Nepal, and, surrounded by terraced fields,
rushing streams, and rocky paths, she began one of several sojourns
among the Gurung people whose ramro hawa-pani (good wind and water) not
only describes the enduring bounty of their land but also reflects the
climate of goodwill they seek to sustain in their community. It was in
their steep Himalayan villages that McHugh came to know another culture,
witnessing and learning the Buddhist appreciation for equanimity in
moments of precious joy and inevitable sorrow.
Love and Honor in the Himalayas is McHugh's gripping ethnographic
memoir based on research among the Gurungs conducted over a span of
fourteen years. As she chronicles the events of her fieldwork, she also
tells a story that admits feeling and involvement, writing of the people
who housed her in the terms in which they cast their relationship with
her, that of family. Welcomed to call her host Ama and become a daughter
in the household, McHugh engaged in a strong network of kin and
friendship. She intimately describes, with a sure sense of comedy and
pathos, the family's diverse experiences of life and loss, self and
personhood, hope, knowledge, and affection. In mundane as well as
dramatic rituals, the Gurungs ever emphasize the importance of love and
honor in everyday life, regardless of circumstances, in all human
relationships. Such was the lesson learned by McHugh, who arrived a
young woman facing her own hardships and came to understand--and
experience--the power of their ways of being.
While it attends to a particular place and its inhabitants, Love and
Honor in the Himalayas is, above all, about human possibility, about
what people make of their lives. Through the compelling force of her
narrative, McHugh lets her emotionally open fieldwork reveal insight
into the privilege of joining a community and a culture. It is an
invitation to sustain grace and kindness in the face of adversity,
cultivate harmony and mutual support, and cherish life fully.
