Books about Kathmandu from Amazon.com

In the third book of the bestselling Children of the Lamp series, djinn twins, John and Philippa Gaunt, are on the trail of another magical mystery As they travel from New York to London to Nepal and India on a whirlwind adventure, the twins try to help their friend and fellow djinn, Buck, find out who murdered his friend using the venomous snakebite of the king cobra. All too soon, John and Philippa find themselves caught up in the lethal world of the Cult of the Nine Cobras, only to discover that they themselves are a target of the creepy cobra cult.

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Price: $3.37 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When TIME magazine writer Pico Iyer set out to explore the East, what he found was: Mohawk haircuts in Bali; yuppies in Hong Kong, a local movie industry that produces not one, but five Rambo ripoffs in Bombay; and young Filipinos rendering a perfect imitation of the latest Madonna song..
Price: $4.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

From the first Nepali author writing in English to be published in the West, Arresting God in Kathmandu brilliantly explores the nature of desire and spirituality in a changing society. With the assurance and unsentimental wisdom of a long-established writer, Upadhyay records the echoes of modernization throughout love and family. Here are husbands and wives bound together by arranged marriages but sometimes driven elsewhere by an intense desire for connection and transcendence. In a city where gods are omnipresent, where privacy is elusive and family defines identity, these men and women find themselves at the mercy of their desires but at the will of their society. Psychologically rich and astonishingly acute, Arresting God in Kathmandu introduces a potent new voice in contemporary fiction..
Price: $4.51 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In Nepal, internationally renowned photographer Richard I'Anson presents a vibrant photographic portrait of this fascinating Himalayan country.

Nepal first established itself as a travelers' mecca in the 1960s, when Kathmandu became an important stopover on the Asian overland route. It has been captivating visitors ever since with its impossibly picturesque villages, soaring snow-covered mountains, grand monuments, and ancient towns whose narrow streets are dotted with temples, tiny shrines and priceless art.

Since his first visit in 1986, I'Anson has returned to Nepal every year to photograph people and places all over the country, from the crowded streets of old Kathmandu to remote mountain passes and high Himalayan viewpoints.

For Nepal he has selected more than 400 stunning photographs covering five regions that always capture the imagination of visitors. Nepal celebrates a unique, ethnically diverse culture living amid incredible natural and urban environments - a heady mix that also includes accessible wildlife, outrageously colorful festivals, an artistic heritage spanning hundreds of years, and a welcoming people who inspire so many traveler to return again and again.
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Price: $28.21 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $9.61 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Nepal is widely acclaimed for its unique art and architectural styles. The ancient palaces, temples, courtyards and streetscapes of Kathmandu Valley are protected as no less than seven World Heritage Sites. Shrines are worshipped daily as part of Nepal's vibrant living heritage. Recent efforts to preserve the architectural heritage of Kathmandu have carefully and authentically restored many of the Valley s important public monuments.

Lesser known are the recent imaginative and adaptive use of Nepali architecture and decorative styles into new buildings and private homes. Kathmandu Valley Style captures the wealth of the past and illustrates how influences from the Malla Newar, Tibetan and Rana architecture have been incorporated into present-day buildings and lifestyles. Using traditional themes and building techniques in the restored historic and new structures has breathed fresh life into Kathmandu s rich living cultural heritage, and provided additional attractions for visitors.

Kathmandu Valley Style features over 40 historic and new buildings, many of them never before photographed or published. Reinforcing national pride in Nepal's vernacular architecture, this unique collection demonstrates how traditional art and architecture can be successfully incorporated into homes for today's changing world. The book will appeal to residents, visitors, tourists, and all who love Nepal, as well as devotees of fine books on art, architecture, and interior design..
Price: $39.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Suitably Modern traces the growth of a new middle class in Kathmandu as urban Nepalis harness the modern cultural resources of mass media and consumer goods to build modern identities and pioneer a new sociocultural space in one of the world's "least developed countries."

Since Nepal's "opening" in the 1950s, a new urban population of bureaucrats, service personnel, small business owners, and others have worked to make a space between Kathmandu's old (and still privileged) elites and its large (and growing) urban poor. Mark Liechty looks at the cultural practices of this new middle class, examining such phenomena as cinema and video viewing, popular music, film magazines, local fashion systems, and advertising. He explores three interactive and mutually constitutive ethnographic terrains: a burgeoning local consumer culture, a growing mass-mediated popular imagination, and a recently emerging youth culture. He shows how an array of local cultural narratives--stories of honor, value, prestige, and piety--flow in and around global narratives of "progress," modernity, and consumer fulfillment. Urban Nepalis simultaneously adopt and critique these narrative strands, braiding them into local middle-class cultural life.

Building on both Marxian and Weberian understandings of class, this study moves beyond them to describe the lived experience of "middle classness"--how class is actually produced and reproduced in everyday practice. It considers how people speak and act themselves into cultural existence, carving out real and conceptual spaces in which to produce class culture.

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Price: $21.71 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Starting in Turkey and covering areas in Iran, Pakistan, India and into Nepal, this compact, concise and lightweight guide focuses on nuts and bolts information for the long-haul overland traveller sticking closely to the trail. The book includes thousands of eating and accommodation options..
Price: $79.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"It wasn't hard to leave: Nixon, the Vietnam War, the Bomb... it's fair to say that I was interested in Indian things... but I knew very little."

A Season in Heaven presents the true stories of travellers who hit the hippie trail in the late sixties David Tomory, himself a veteran of the road to Kathmandu, interviewed a group of travellers who went looking for enlightenment and discovered a world that changed their lives.

In Iran and Afghanistan, in Indian ashrams, mountain villages and dubious hotels, a generation of young people got hip, got busted, lost their luggage, and sometimes even found themselves. A Season in Heaven travels with the Americans, Europeans and others who took the trip overland from Europe to India, Pakistan and Nepal.

By turns funny and fascinating, spiritual and sensual, their experiences reflect one of the most significant and rarely described social movements of recent times. A Season in Heaven will stir the memories of those who went, and reveals the attraction for those who wish they had..
Price: $24.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Award-winning photographer Kevin Bubriski captures in stunning detail the sacred places of Nepal's Kathmandu Valley. Noted scholar Keith Dowman provides history and commentary on the significance of the sites..
Price: $27.55 [Notify me when price goes down.]