Healing Traditions of the Northwestern Himalayas

Pankaj Gupta is a senior research office at the Institute of Integrated Himalayan Studies (IIHS), University Grants Commission (UGC) Centre of Excellence, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, India. He is a doctorate in biosciences from Himachal Pradesh University and the managing editor of Himalayan Studies Journal & IIHS News Bulletin. He is also a member of the editorial team of Himshikhar, the Himachal Pradesh University newsletter, brought out quarterly by Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. He is member of the Mountain Forum Himalayas, a nongovernment organization active in Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand states in India, and has been an expert for project evaluations funded by the Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), India. He has acted as a consultant for the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited for social impact assessment studies and baseline studies since 2008. His areas of interest are village studies, natural resource management, health oriented problems of women and children particularly nutritional, anthropometric and dietary studies, traditional health care systems and magico-religious methods of healing, ethno-Cultural, ethno-ecological and audiovisual documentation of culture and nature.Vijay Kumar Sharma is a project officer at the Institute of Integrated Himalayan Studies, University Grants Commission (UGC) Centre of Excellence, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. He has published papers in reputed journals, besides editing and authoring two books each. He has been involved in various research projects of the institute funded by the UGC and other funding agencies. His areas of specialization are rural sociology, folk medicine and indigenous knowledge.Sushma Sharma is a professor in the Department of Biosciences, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. She was previously the Director of the Women’s Study Centre of Himachal Pradesh University. She has completed a number of projects funded by the UGC and other funding agencies. Dr. Sharma has worked on nutritional and physiological studies of Himalayan people. Her research papers have been published in journals of national and international repute. Her area of specialization is muscle physiology.

"Gupta et al. is a book of science, primarily focused on the knowledge about, and the therapeutic effects of, plants and plant products in Himachal Himalaya, India. ... Their book continues a recent trend of well-researched academic papers and books on medicinal plants in Indian Himalaya and both sociologists and bioscientists will find it worthwhile. Sociologists will learn about the social aspects of healing practice and knowledge and bioscientists about the medical aspects." (Enrico Beltramini, Asian Highlands Perspectives, Vol. 40, 2016)

• Prologue.- Chapter 1. The Bountiful Himalayas.- Chapter 2. Health and Folk Medicine.- Chapter 3. Ethnic Food as Medicament.- Chapter 4. Mystic Healers.- Chapter 5. Traditional Herbalists.- Chapter 6. Indigenous Materia Medica.- Epilogue.