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Article: Robert Desjarlais. Sensory Biographies: Lives and Deaths among Nepal's Yolmo Buddhists.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Biography
- Article date:
- June 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 University of Hawaii Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Berkeley: U of California P, 2003.351 pp. + Notes. ISBN 0-520-23588-6, $21.95.
Written with a sharply focused clarity that is free of academic jargon, Sensory Biographies compellingly explores the life histories of two elderly Yolmo, members of a Buddhist ethnicity whose ancestors migrated from Tibet into Central Nepal three centuries ago. The work juxtaposes these two lives, each serving as a mirror not only to the other but also to Yolmo society. One is a hereditary lama, "Mheme" ("Grandfather") Lama, a widower, twice married, who was eighty-five years old in 2000; the second is a twice married lamini (daughter of a hereditary lama), Kisang Omu, a widow, ...