From the book High by Erika Fatland:

“Of the many small kingdoms that once existed in the Himalayas, which in many ways were the Himalayas, only one remains. All the others have been swallowed up by their big, powerful neighbours in the course of the last century of change. Throughout the mountain region, from Hunza in the west to Sikkim in the east, there are empty palaces. Some have been made into museums, others are slowly crum- bling. The inhabitants of these small kingdoms no longer have kings, but they do now have roads and hydroelectricity and a centralised school system. And in the process, something invaluable has been lost. Not only the local kings but small, isolated worlds, com- plete with sacred rivers and holy mountains, have been slowly erased from the map.

Perhaps this is inevitable. Some of the world’s major nuclear powers meet in the Himalayas. And the world’s two most populous nations are divided here by a thin, dotted line. The small kingdoms never stood a chance in the great geopolitical game.

But one has survived, against all odds.”

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