Applications Requested for a Reading Seminar on a Global History of Mountaineering and the Himalaya with Dr. Gaurav C. Garg

Details

Applications Requested for a Reading Seminar on a Global History of Mountaineering and the Himalaya

with Dr. Gaurav C. Garg

Organized by Martin Chautari

Course Introduction

Most people today find mountains to be beautiful, majestic, and, serene. In contemporary imaginations, mountains are essential for the planet’s survival and indeed our own physical and mental health. But this was not always the case. In pre-modern Europe, for example, mountains were either ignored or depicted in literature as ugly deformities that scarred the Earth’s surface. Why did Europeans think of mountains as ugly? How, when, and why did their aesthetic imaginations change to the extent that someone like the celebrated polymath John Ruskin could write that “mountains are the beginning and the end of all scenery”? How did European perceptions of mountains differ from that of the peoples and traditions of South Asia and elsewhere? And what role has South Asia and in particular Nepal played in shaping modern human relationships with the mountains?

This course will take participants on a journey from early Asia and pre- modern Europe, to the eighteenth-century when the Alps emerged as objects of adventure, veneration, and scientific experimentation, which in turn, kickstarted two new modern practices—mountain tourism and the world’s most literary sport, mountaineering. This course will then explore how these practices were deeply imbricated with colonialism, nationalism, fascism, and masculinity in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. The course will end in the late twentieth century where it will focus on commercialization of mountaineering in Nepal. In other words, this course will take participants on a journey from a stage in human history where mountains were at best the abode of gods and spirits, and, at worst, ugly deformities, to a stage where there are now “traffic jams” on Mount Everest.

This interdisciplinary course will offer a new and exciting vantage point for learning about several fundamental issues and concepts in history, humanities, and the social sciences. Participants will learn how scholars in the humanities have rehabilitated mountains as a key terrain where modernity is performed, its limits are exposed, and occasionally transcended. Overall, this course will motivate participants to think of the history of human interactions with mountains as vital for making sense of what it means to be modern, and, for understanding how we got there.

Gaurav C. Garg is an Assistant Professor of History at Ashoka University, India. He was trained in the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and obtained his PhD from New York University (NYU). He is a historian of cities, business, mountaineering, and development in modern South Asia. His first book Agents of Inertia: Business, Urban Crisis, and Economic Decline in Twentieth-Century Calcutta will be published by the Cambridge University Press in July 2026. His works have also appeared in journals such as Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journal of Global History, Journal of Historical Geography and South Asia: The Journal of South Asian Studies. He is currently working on two book projects. One, is on the history of the Ford Foundation in India. The other is a global history of Indian mountaineering. Dr. Garg is also trying to make tentative forays in modern Nepali history. He loves cities and mountains. Calcutta and Kathmandu are two of his favourite cities. He is also an avid trekker and he likes to trek in Nepal when time permits.

Seminar Dates: May 18, May 21, May 25, May 28, June 1 and June 4 (2026); Mondays and Thursdays.
Time: 5:00–6:30 pm
Venue: Martin Chautari Seminar Hall, Thapathali, Kathmandu.
Course Fee: NRs. 4,000 (In words: Rupees Four Thousands)

Eligibility Requirements:
This course is intended for MA, MPhil, PhD students and early career scholars who are interested in the study of Mountaineering and the Himalaya. Applicants are required to: (i) do all the assigned readings and come to the seminar prepared to discuss them (see below for details); and (ii) have a good command in English.

Application Process:
Please submit a 200-word write-up explaining why you want to attend the course. Also include a one-page CV of yours with full contact details including your current email address and telephone numbers. For online applications, please fill up this Google Form and attach the requested essay and CV as indicated in the form. You can also submit the above in person at MC’s office (27 Jeet Jung Marg, Thapathali, Kathmandu) in a closed envelope that states “Application for a Reading Seminar on a Global History of Mountaineering and the Himalaya” on the front side. The application deadline is May 5, 2026. Successful applicants will be notified by May 12, 2026. They will have to enroll by May 15, 2026 by paying the course fee to Martin Chautari. Soft copies of the reading materials will be provided after the payment.

Successful applicants can make the payment either in cash at the front desk of Martin Chautari during office hours, or they can pay it electronically (via e-Sewa id 9848867217).

For further information, please contact:

Martin Chautari
Tel: 5338050, 4102027, 4102243
Email: chautari@mos.com.np
Website: www.martinchautari.org.np

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Course Schedule

Session I: Mountains before Mountaineering:

• Kenneth Clarke, Civilisation: Worship of Nature, ch 11. (youtube link to the video will be provided. (50 mins video)
• Jon Mathieu, “The Sacralization of Mountains in Europe during the Modern Age” Mountain Research and Development, 26(4), pp. 343–349.
• The Origin of the Young God Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhava (Translation by Hank Heifetz), Sarga/Canto One, pp. 22–31.
• Nachiket Chanchani, Mountain Temples and Temple Mountains, pp. 27–34.

[Total reading: 20 pages; 50 mins video].
Class will comprise introduction, discussion and lecture.

Session II: Emergence of Mountaineering

• Caroline Schaumann, Peak Pursuits: Emergence of Mountaineering in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 75–90.
• Peter Hansen, “Albert Smith, the Alpine Club, and the Invention of Mountaineering in Mid-Victorian Britain” Journal of British Studies, v. 34 (July 1995), pp. 300–324

[Total Reading: 40 pages].
Class will comprise discussion and lecture.

Session III: “Golden Age” of Mountaineering: Empires, Wars, and Romance.

• Peter Hansen, “Vertical boundaries, National Identities: British Mountaineering on the frontiers of European and the Empire, 1868–1914,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, v, 21 no. 1 pp. 48–71.
• Teit Keller, Apostles of the Alps: Mountaineering and Nation Building in Germany and Austria 1860–1939, pp. 47–66.
• Wade Davis: Into the Silence (youtube talk, 30 mins. Link will be provided).

[Total Reading: 45 pages].
Discussion based class.

Short Lecture Introduction to Romantic Clumbers

• Post-class documentary screening, The Epic of Everest, 1924 (attendance optional).

Session IV: Can the Subaltern Climb?

Participants can pick any one of the two chapters of interest:

• Sherpas: Sherry Ortner, Life and Death on Mt. Everest, pp. 56–90.
• Women: Sherry Ortner, Life and Death on Mt. Everest, pp. 217–247.

[Reading: between 30–40 pages].
Post-class documentary [Sherpa by Jennifer Peedom optional].

Session V: Mountaineering and Trekking in Nepal: The Conquest of Everest and its Aftermath

[Pick any one of the two]

• Gaurav C Garg “Postcolonial South Asia, Tenzing, and the Conquest of Everest.” [30 pages approx.]
• Mark Liechty Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal, pp. 200–235.

[reading 30 pages]
Class discussions and lecture.

Post-class documentary screening (optional)

Session VI: Mountaineering and Trekking in Nepal: Age of Commercialization.

• Mark Liechty Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal, pp. 296–322.
• In-class documentary: The Inside Story of Mount Everest’s Deadliest Climbing Season

Class discussion and wrap up.