Harka’s maps

Summary

Mark Turin reviews three Nepal atlases published in 2006 with Harka Gurung as principal author or editor. Based on the 2001 census, the Nepal Atlas of Ethnic and Caste Groups and the Nepal Atlas of Language Groups present district-level distributions of 103 officially recognised ethnic groups and 93 languages. Turin values their baseline information but identifies questionable ethnic and linguistic data and distribution difficulties. Nepal Atlas and Statistics contains 95 maps, five diagrams, and statistical tables covering physical, sociocultural, economic, and development topics. Turin praises several maps’ visual effectiveness while criticising indistinguishable colours in others and stressing that weaknesses in official data constrain the reliability of all three volumes.