Sensory Biographies: Lives and Deaths among Nepal's Yolmo Buddhists

Rating:
Summary: Important ethnographic study
Review: Robert Desjarlais is considered one of the most interesting psychological anthropologists of his generation. In the past, he has written on shamanistic practices and developed interesting ethnographic and methodological theories (with particular interest in phenomenology). Recently, he has been confident enough to discount some of his past approaches (the idea that one can fully 'enter into' a role in a foreign culture, and then inhabit that role and analyze the experiences one has as if they are the same as those people one is studying), and has therefore been enabled to move onto breaking new ground in anthropological theory. Others could learn from his example.

In this current work -- beautifully designed and well presented, and a pleasure to read given Desjarlais's style at writing -- he looks at a few select individuals among Nepal's Yolmo Buddhist community. He delves deeply into their lives, rather than providing a more general study of the community and culture (although this necessary context is of course provided).

Although this book will have a somewhat restricted audience, and is not a general work, it should be most interesting to pscyhological anthropologists, ethnographers in general, and those interested in the region and in Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhism.