Sacred Landscapes

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About the Author Daniel Miller in the Wild Yak Valley, Northern Tibet, 1991.

DANIEL MILLER first visited Nepal and began trekking in the Himalayan region in 1974. He has lived and worked in Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Mongolia and has traveled throughout the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau. Trained as a rangeland ecologist, he has used photography to document his work and journeys. He has published numerous scientific articles and books about the rangelands, wildlife and nomads of the Tibetan Plateau and Central Asia. His photographs have been shown in exhibitions in Beijing, Kathmandu and New Delhi. In 2008, his book of 108 black and white photographs of Tibetan nomads, Drokpa: Nomads of the Tibetan Plateau and Himalaya, was published by Vajra Publications, Kathmandu, Nepal.

All of the photographs in this book were taken with a Canon manual cam era, using 35mm black and white film. Prints were scanned and made into digital images for the production of this book.

Introduction Thirty-nine years ago when began taking photographs in the Himalaya, was not with the thought that would eventually display them in exhibitions of my desire to explore the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau and whetted an appetite to learn more about the landscapes and people, especially the nomads. set out only to document my journeys and experiences in photographs. For most of my adult life have been absorbed with the Himalaya, Tibetan Plateau and Central Asia and this. region became the focus of my research, work, writings and my photography grew up on dairy farm in southern Minnesota in the Midwestern United States. on glaciated outwash plains between oak savanna woodlands and the tall-grass prairie. Perhaps was the expanse of horizon where was raised that instilled in me the urge to explore the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau and their grand vistas. Much of our farm and the adjoining land of our neighbors included large tract of woods: dense oak and maple forest that provided habitat for white-tailed deer and other small game. As kid. spent many hours hiking those woods, camping and tracking deer with neighborhood friends. started hunting an early age, first squirrels shot with 22-caliber rifle and, after getting 12-gauge shotgun, graduated to ducks, pheasants and deer. this way, developed an interest in natural history and ecology Hunting taught me how to move through the woods silently, how be observant of basic things like the direction from which the wind was blowing and on which side of trees moss found. also practiced how to sit silently for hours along game trail. watching and listening. was training that proved useful later on in my journeys in.

Tibet. A family vacation to the Black Hills in South Dakota when was young sparked an interest in mountains and wilderness areas, was eleven years old when the first Americans successfully climbed Mt. Everest (in 1963) and reading National Geographic Magazine articles of that historic climb and other expeditions, as well as stories of little-known countries and exotic cultures, aroused my curiosity in foreign lands, especially Nepal and Tibet. In college began rock climbing on cliffs along the Mississippi River, went to an Outward Bound course in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, did National Outdoor Leadship School (NOLS) climb in the Tetons in the winter, where was buried in nche, and backpacked and climbed in the Black Hills and the Rocky during college holidays.

**Contents and Sample Pages**