Flying Over the Himalaya

FLYING OVER THE HIMALAYA—Peak Identification
Tamotsu (Tom) Nakamura. Pp. 233, 180 colour photos, maps.
(Nakanishiya Shuppan, Kyoto Japan, 2019, Yen 8000/USD 75).

Tom san is well known for his travels in Western China,
Sichuan or East of Himalaya as he calls it. Almost singlehandedly
he has opened this area to knowledge and future.
Whatever he does, it is with passion and perseverance.
It took him 20 years tocompile and identify peaks that make up this book.
All pictures are taken from the air, requiring more than 20 flights on routes like
Kathmandu to Lhasa, Kathmandu to Chengdu, Yushu and Lhasa to Ali,
across the Tibetan plateau. He has taken hundreds of photos (Canon
EOS 50mm~250mm and Canon PowerShot S95 35mm~100mm)
and consulted many maps to identify each peak of the Himalaya seen
on these routes. The result is this classic large size book. It will help
climbers, students and researchers to understand the vastness of the
Himalaya. There is so much to climb and explore in the range.
The areas from the Karakoram to West Sichuan Highlands are
covered in 11 well-distributed sections. Peaks of each area are
identified, and some from different angles. Many areas not open for
exploration for political reasons but are now open to knowledge.
This is the work of a lifetime – a book that defies time as mountains
are not going to change.

Towards the end of the book, he has presented a list of his lifetime
of work from 1934 to 2019. The scope of his accomplishments is
amazing. He has travelled to many parts of the world and addressed
many Alpine Clubs. He is an Honorary Member of nine Alpine Clubs,
including the Himalayan Club, and the recipient of the Busk Medal of
the Royal Geographical Society, London (2008). In 2016 he received
the Piolet d’Or, Asia, Lifetime Achievement Award and in the following
year the Japanese government honoured him with an Award for
Lifetime Sports Achievement. All well deserved.

Personally, I am thankful to him for help that I have received almost
instantly, which is his nature. When I was exploring Arunachal
Pradesh, I received invaluable inputs from him with maps of Russian
and Chinese origin. The routes I followed and mountains I saw are
well covered in this book as aerial views. He generously shares the
wealth of information and resources he has.

But I have one complaint. The book does not cover many parts
of the Indian Himalaya, like Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh,
Uttarakhand and Sikkim, not from the south anyway. Perhaps the
restrictions of the Indian government are responsible. Hopefully that
is for another book, energetic Mr Tom san!
HARISH KAPADIA