Professor Ruedi Baumgartner’s book about the many facets of Dolakha’s Rolwaling Valley—titled Farewell to Yak and Yeti?—has been launched amid a ceremony held at the Rolwaling Culture Center, in Sarswotinagar, Bouddha, Kathmandu, on February 13.

The book chronicles multiple aspects of the valley—it’s historical, religious, economic and sociocultural essence. In doing so, the book has not only listed Rowaling’s major cultural cornerstones but has also captured the cultural shift it has undergone during the past 50 years. Further, the book encapsulates the vicissitude of the lifestyles and the everyday human complexities that the inhabitants of this valley have gone through, especially in the light of youths fleeing their hometown to seek jobs in cities in Nepal and abroad, just as the subtitle of the book—The Sherpas of Rolwaling facing a globalised world—evokes. 

Professor Rudie has been researching in the valley—oftentimes residing in and around it—since 1970 AD.