“But for the Himalayas, there would be no Ganga, Jamuna, Brahmaputra and Indus; if the Himalayas were not there, there would be no rainfall and these rivers would not be there, and without rainfall India would become a desert like the Sahara. Our far-sighted ancestors who knew this and who were always grateful to God for the gifts that were bestowed on them turned the Himalayas into a place of pilgrimage. Thousands of Hindus have sacrificed their lives in these parts in their search for God. These persons were not insane. It is a result of their tapas that the Hindu faith and India still endure.…The true Himalayas exist within our hearts.”
                                                 --Mahatma Gandhi

Welcome !

This site is an outgrowth of the NEH Institute on the Cultures and Religions of the Himalayas conducted by Professors Todd Lewis and Leonard Van Der Kuijp in the summer of 2002 at Holy Cross College. 

The purpose of this site is to supply teachers with curricular ideas, information on related sites, and summative assessments for units of study on the Himalayan region. The site is divided into three sections: the Five Themes of Geography; primary source documents on the independence of India; and ideas on governance using the novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton (New York: Pocket Books, 1960). Relevant Content Standards in History/Social Studies and English/Language Arts for the state of California are included in the teacher notes.

I teach tenth grade World History and Literature at a large, diverse public high school in Southern California.  I welcome any comments about the materials and ideas presented.