ABSTRACT
To supplement the environmental sampling, the author conducted interviews with people living within the mountain community, during which he asked about the region's culture, religion, environmental change, and social life. One of those interviews was with a man called Karma Gurung, an elderly man with a Tibetan cup. Before introducing the Tibetan cup, however, it is important to say that my thinking about objects had been radically affected just prior to my trip to the Himalayas. Tourism had started to creep into the Himalayas and was in the throes of becoming an industry about the time Karma was born. Karma indulged for over an hour. The author peppered him with questions about his life, his family, Manang culture, religion, and the impact of tourism on his village. The room Karma led us into took its shape from an uneven dirt floor, earthen walls, and a metal roof with a hole slashed in it to let the light in.
