The Himalayan region of India is experiencing rapid development in tourism, agriculture, highway construction and hydroelectric development. This research describes and evaluates the role of public participation in tourism development projects in these high mountain environments, using the proposed Himalayan Ski Village (HSV) development in Manali as a case study. Qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews, document reviews and participant observation revealed that there have been formal and informal opportunities for public participation in project development. The findings suggest that local people have been involved in project development activities, such as training for skiing, but not in the decision-making process related to the project. The majority of the participation activities were, in fact, instigated by the public including activities such as protests and court challenges. The findings also show that involvement in the participatory activities undertaken by the public and project proponent fostered instrumental and communicative learning outcomes.

In the context of growing tourism and global warming, the fragile landscape of the Himalayas is under immense pressure because of rapid land cover changes in developing countries like Nepal. Remotely sensed data combined with ethnographic knowledge are useful tools for studying such changes. The quantitative change can be measured analyzing satellite images whereas local people’s perceptions provide supportive information. To measure such changes in Sagarmatha National Park of Nepal, Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Thematic Mapper (TM) images since 1972 were used. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was calculated for different elevation classes and land cover types. These measurements, along with land cover change (1992- 2006) analysis, shows a significant conversion of the areas covered by ice, shrub and grass to rock and soil. Factors including political conflict due to a Maoist rebellion group, inactive park management, increasing tourist demand, and consequent natural resources exploitation helped to explain the change in the forested areas. This is supported by the information from short, informal, semi-structured interviews with local people. However, the local people are unaware of global warming, which has caused the ice melting and glacial lake expansion. Although global causes are out of the immediate control of land managers, better management practices and managed tourism might help alleviate deteriorating Himalayan ecosystems.

Impatiens glandulifera is an invasive species throughout Europe. It was introduced to the wild in 1918 by escape from private gardens as well as the transport of garden soil and waste. Impatiens glandulifera prefers moist soils with moderate shade and commonly grows in riparian environments. In the Umeå municipality in northern Sweden, where this study is focused, the number of Himalayan balsam observations has dramatically increased over the last few years. This study aimed to determine habitat and anthropogenic land-use factors that may have contributed to the spread of Himalayan balsam in the Umeå municipality. This was done by using data on recorded observations of the species in a database called Artportalen. In order to determine how abundant and in which habitats Himalayan balsam occurs in the Umeå municipality, data on recorded observations in Artportalen from the Umeå municipality region for the period 01-01-2021 to 31-12-2021 was used along with maps from Google Earth Pro and Google maps. It was found that Himalayan balsam is now common in the region and does not show a definitive preference for riparian habitats or for forest or open areas in the Umeå municipality. Human activities seemed to be the main contributor to the spread of Himalayan balsam in the Umeå municipality.

Geothermobarometric, micro- and macro-structural data indicate that peak metamorphic pressure and temperature of the Greater Himalayan Sequence (GHS) of the Garhwal Region of India increase dramatically across the Main Central Thrust (MCT). Metamorphic pressure and temperature increase from ~5 kbar and ~550 ºC in the Lesser Himalayan Crystalline Sequence (LHCS) in the footwall to ~14 kbar and ~850 ºC at ~3 km above the MCT in the hanging wall (GHS). Pressures decrease slightly upsection to ~8 kbar and temperatures remain nearly constant at ~850 ºC to the structurally overlying South Tibetan Detachment (STD). The LHCS exhibits a high temperature-depth gradient (30 ºC/km) whereas the lower GHS has a much lower temperature-depth gradient (18 ºC/km) that increases to ~28 ºC/km near the STD. The pressure-temperature pattern is consistent with conduction of heat from the hotter (initially deeper) GHS into the colder (initially shallower) footwall of LHCS and conductive cooling of the hotter hanging wall of GHS along the STD. Numerical "channel flow" models predict a pressure-temperature pattern for the exhumation of the GHS similar to what is observed in the Garhwal Region of India. However, observed pressures (~10-14 kbar) are higher than predicted in the models (~10-12). The higher pressure of the GHS is likely due to the greater exhumation from displacement along the Munsiari Thrust (MT). In other words, the GHS in the Eastern Garhwal region provides a deeper view of the channel material than elsewhere in the range. The temperature-depth ratios of the Eastern Garhwal region also exhibit a very different pattern of conductive heating and cooling of the LHCS and GHS respectively, than elsewhere in the range. Ductile features within the GHS exhibit sheath fold geometries, indicative of high degrees of ductile flow. Overprinting the ductile structure are two populations of extensional conjugate fractures oriented both parallel and perpendicular to the orogen. These fractures crosscut major tectonic boundaries in the region such as the MCT and STD, and are found throughout the LHCS, GHS, and Tethyan Sedimentary Sequences (TSS). The crosscutting of these brittle structures across the major tectonic boundaries in the area indicate that the various tectonolithic sequences were exhumed during widespread extensional deformation as one coherent block.

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The dominant discourse surrounding academic research libraries today is one of change and scholarship in the humanities has seen a similar revolution in practice. Yet, most of the documented changes in either have been ascribed to the availability of online journal materials. Despite the accessibility of millions of rare, digitized primary resources freely available on the web, little has been done to understand the impact of these materials on either the practice of scholarship or on libraries. The research described in this proposal is an investigation into digitization projects involving rare and closely guarded materials and the effects of these projects on humanities scholarship. This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative measures to: Assess the impact of digitized primary resources on the work of humanities scholars; To construct a model based on the findings that explains current use of digitized primary sources; and, To discuss the implications of these findings for academic research libraries. The research questions are answered through a detailed analysis of the role of digitization in the field of Tibetan and Himalayan studies. The author presents detailed evidence of how digitization is changing the inputs, practice, and outputs of scholarship in this field, as well as the characteristics of digitization that have led to these changes. Importantly, these findings separate out the success of individual projects from the success of digitization across the field as a whole. Support for community and innovation as well as the presence of critical mass across the field are stressed as the three most significant factors. Finally, the implications of these findings are assessed within a newly proposed model of academic libraries. This “scholar-centric” model is intended to provide both a theoretical framework for the research findings as well as a normative provocation for structuring future research and discussions about the role of academic libraries and their presence online.

Field observations of the Greater Himalayan Sequence in Eastern Nepal demonstrate a ductile, highly strained package of metamorphic rocks that show extensive evidence of crustal anatexis throughout. These can be distinguished from the Lesser Himalayan sequence below by a distinct reduction in metamorphic grade, an inverted metamorphic sequence and a high strain zone corresponding to the Main Central Thrust. Metamorphic studies are combined with geochronology to demonstrate a protracted period of crustal melting followed by rapid decompression from 18.7 Ma to 15.6 Ma. A metamorphic decompression rate is quantified at c.2mm/yr during this period. This is interpreted to represent exhumation of the Greater Himalayan Sequence by a process of ductile, channelised flow from the mid-crust beneath Tibet. Below a prominent band of kyanite gneiss, previously used to locate the Main Central Thrust, but here mapped within the Greater Himalayan Sequence, partial melting is still exhibited. Here monazites are dated at 10.6 Ma. In the Lesser Himalaya below, allanites record a similar 10.1 Ma event. This implies that following channel flow during the mid-Miocene, the channel widened in the lower-Miocene to incorporate a greater structural thickness. Following these two periods of exhumation and ductile extrusion, separated in time and space, Fission Track studies indicate that much slower, erosion driven exhumation proceeded, at <1 mm/yr. This rate increases slightly in the Pliocene, most likely in response to Northern Hemisphere glaciation; no difference in exhumation is seen across the Greater Himalayan Sequence with respect to the different, earlier, phases of ductile channel flow related exhumation. These results demonstrate the episodic nature of channel flow in the Himalaya and reconcile arguments about the position of the MCT in Eastern Nepal.

In this thesis I synthesized different aspects related to diversity, distribution, uses and conservation of medicinal plants in Nepal and also have attempted to recommend guidelines for sustainability of two highly used alpine plant species. The over-harvesting or human induced activities are not the only problem for biodiversity but recently invasion of alien species has also emerged as serious problem in Nepal. I thus also attempted to analyze the effect of invasive species on community composition in the last paper. The first two papers deal with diversity, distribution, uses and harvesting. Paper I showed that medicinal plants in Nepal have unimodal relationship with elevation and the maximum total species richness is at 1000 m. Paper II which deals with the uses of medicinal plants in the Humla region, west Nepal showed that there are 161 medicinal plant species belonging to 61 families and 106 genera used for treating 72 human and 7 veterinary ailments. Medicinal plants in Humla were mostly collected in wild. This induces a serious threat to diversity of the medicinal plants and it is therefore necessary to develop proper management guidelines for their harvesting in wild and/or their domestication. Rheum australe, an endemic plant to west Himalayan region, is widely used plant in traditional...

The Tibetan literary corpus offers a wide array of (auto)biographical accounts; Tibetans have been recollecting - and narrating - life stories in earnest since the "later diffusion" (Tib. phyi dar) of Buddhism in the 11^th century. The hybrid essence of life writing, suspended between fact and fiction, finds a perfect expression in the text at the core of the present dissertation, i.e. the journal (Tib. nyin deb) of a 20th century Khams pa trader, Kha stag 'Dzam yag. The text records the events, travels, and impressions experienced by the author between 1944 and 1956; structured like a diary, this autodiegetic text, originally written in a scroll-paper format, was later edited and finally published in India in 1997. Two different heuristic devices, i.e. narratology and socio-economic analysis, are used in the present dissertation to analyse the structure and content of the nyin deb, as well as the author's idiosyncrasies emerging from the process of narrativisation. Whereas the narratological approach allows the identification of the interplay of memory, self, and culture in the socio-historical context of mid-20th century Tibet, the socio-economic analysis reflects on the nyin deb as a form of social history rather than personal narrative. The identification of "true", historical facts confirms the author's claims to factuality, thus providing unique information and insight regarding the political and economic role of Khams pa traders in 1940s-1950s Tibet, as well as the development of new pilgrimage rituals and the emergence of forms of "spiritual tourism" in modern India.

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