Title in ENGLISH : Petroglyphs--drawings on rock--are the earliest and richest traces of human culture in Zangskar, a distinctive region of the Western Himalayas. This volume is richly illustrated with original photographs taken in Zangskar and neighboring regions documenting the locations and details of these enigmatic rock carvings. The photographs represent more than twenty years of fieldwork in Zangskar. They accompany a wide-ranging inquiry into their subject matter, distribution, communication strategies, and relationships with those in surrounding areas. Through archaeology, comparative anthropology and ethnography, and formal analysis, the study, written in accessible prose, demonstrates the connections to huntergatherers and later to herders who made them. These drawings on stone once provided a visual legacy in the landscape of contemporary Zangksar is with their economy mixing agriculture and herding, but are fast disappearing with the destructive expansion of road-building and neglect. ;;Besides more than 150 illustrations, the book comes with a DVD with an additional 143 color illustrations.;;Excerpts from published reviews of Rob Linrothe, Seeing Into Stone: Pre-Buddhist Petroglyphs and Zangskar's Early Inhabitants (New Delhi and Berlin: Studio Orientalia, 2016). ;;Review by: ;Mark Aldenderfer, Journal of Asian Studies 76 no.4 (2017): 1102-1103.;Valerie C. Doran in Orientations 48 no.3 (2017): 128-130;Martin Vernier, Etudes mongoles et siberiennes, centraasiatiques et tibetaines 48 (2017): 1-4; http://emscat.revues.org/2953.;;;Rob Linrothe's Seeing into Stone is a beautiful and brave book. It is beautiful because it is filled with stunning color photography of the rock art, mostly petroglyphs cared and pecked into stone, and landscapes of Zangskar, India, its subject. The images in the book-more than 150 that are accompanied by another 143 on a companion DVD-are critical to the success of the volume because rock are is an intensely visual subject matter, and much of its interpretation depends on its context and placement within a landscape. The book is brave because it treads into an anthropological and archaeological domain that is deeply contested by those who conduce rock are studies and the many others who critique them. Mark Aldenderfer;;By examining the interrelationships between Zangskar's landscape, social economy and culture, Linrothe seeks to develop some sense of how this material might add to an understanding of the significance of the petroglyphs both to their makes and their subsequent viewers-some of whom later appropriated the sites and imagery of the petroglyphs for their own purposes, as for example when Buddhist imagery was later superimposed onto the Neolithic iconography. Valerie C. Doran;;[S]ome of the most compelling and relatable passages are those which move outside the purview of scholarly analysis and into the realm of narrative, in particular those which chronicle the direct experience of people in encounters with the landscape, the animals and the motifs. For example, Linrothe provides fascinating first-hand accounts by 19th century colonial explorers. Valerie C. Doran;;[A]nother important three in Linrothe's study [is] its sense of urgency. Just as the number of animals in Zangskar has dwindled significantly over the last century due to hunting and development, so has the number of petroglyphs been drastically reduced, even in the nearly 30 years since Linrothe first encountered them. Many of the rocks on which the petroglyphs are incised have been destroyed to make way for roads, while other have been broken apart to be used as building materials . . . . Linrothe's book demonstrates the importance of the petroglyphs not only as material culture, but also as source material that can lead both scholar and casual visitor along many pathways of illumination, and in so doing, make a significant impact on efforts towards both further investigation and preservation. Valeric C. Doran;;Pour cet ouvrage longuement muri et enrichi de la longue experience de ses nombreuses peregrinations dans les vall‚es du Zanskar, R. Linrothe pose d'emblee le cadre: le titre resume a lui seul la position qu'entend suivre l'auteur tout au long de son travail. Cet axiome est etaye au fil des pages par les riches illustrations de l'auteur, aux cadrages inhabituels et parfois audacieux, et d'une reflexion, d'une ® vision ¯ tout azimut, fruit de la diversite de son experience et de ses connaissances. Pour parachever cette richesse iconographique un CD-ROM accompagne l'ouvrage, le completant de 150 illustrations annexes. Martin Vernier

ISBN 13: 9788192450285

ISBN 10: 8192450287

Edition: New Delhi

Year: 2018

Language: ENGLISH

Subject(s): Fine Arts, Buddhism