In the Rhythm of the Himalayan Villages

Kurt Luger: In the Rhythm of the Himalayan Villages. Cultural preservation and development in Nepal

The Guest Lecture takes place within the MA Cultural Production, and everyone who is interested is invited cordially. The lecture is held in English language.

Development cooperation is customarily associated with change and modernisation. In the process, cultural conventions are often viewed not as valuable traditions to be preserved, but as questionable affairs that can become the source of potential problems. Western 'experts' consider often that local traditions, local cultures and religious beliefs create more trouble than they are worth. For that reason, development cooperation - even on such apparently mundane matters as water and electricity supply, or poverty reduction - has to be understood as an ongoing experiment in intercultural understanding. It must build on day-by-day efforts to find a mutually acceptable basis for working together to develop activities - and that also means being ready to change plans and abandon ventures if no consensus can be reached on the goals and how to reach them.

Participation is the keyword in development co-operation and the speaker provides a glimpse into the world of working shoulder to shoulder with the local people in the Himalayan country Nepal. His organisation EcoHimal, based in Salzburg and Kathmandu, has been involved in project activities in Nepal, Tibet and Pakistan for almost 20 years.

Kurt Luger has been working as a project supervisor and chairman of this NGO and is a professor of transcultural communication and tourism at the Department of Communication, University of Salzburg.