Michael Benanav is a New Mexico-based author and freelance photographer known for immersing himself in foreign cultures and bringing stories and images back from distant places. His latest book, “Himalaya Bound: One Family’s Quest to Save Their Animals and an Ancient Way of Life”, will be read from and discussed Friday night at 7:30 in the Creative Media Theatre inside Milton Hall as part of NMSU’s Nelson-Boswell Reading Serires. Scott Brocato spoke with Michael Benanav about the book.
Scott Brocato:
As an author in freelance photographer, you're known for immersing yourself in foreign cultures to bring forth compelling stories and images. What drew you to that kind of immersive journalism?
Michael Benanav:
Basically it’s just what I really enjoy doing.
Scott Brocato:
How did it start?
Michael Benanav:
I started by...I’d been traveling, doing some very long-term, off the beaten path kind of traveling in the Middle East, and decided that I had to figure out a way to basically keep traveling. And I had always done some writing and thought that one way to support my travel habit would be to write about things in places that I had seen, that I was really interested in. And so that just gradually over time grew into what I've been able to do.
Scott Brocato:
And the nomadic lifestyle, you write in your book that you were sort of influenced partially by Lawrence of Arabia. The movie or just...?
Michael Benanav:
No, I had read a biography of him, actually several times, when I was probably, you know, 8,9, ten years old. And I was just so fascinated by how this guy was able to really, you know, immerse and... you know, in his own way, kind of integrate into just a very different culture. And I was totally taken by it, and thought, well, if he could do it, maybe I can't do it exactly to the extent that he did, but I can certainly try. The more that I was travelling and the more that I was really looking for stories in the places that I was traveling, the more that I found. And once you begin to dig under the surface of a place, or the world, you realize there are countless fascinating, important stories out there, that most people don't know anything about.
Scott Brocato:
Let's move to your latest book, “Himalaya Bound: One Family’s Quest to Save Their Animals and an Ancient Way of Life”, which you'll be reading from and talking about Friday night here at NMSU. You write about your journey with a tribe of forest dwelling, nomadic water buffalo herders in India, the tribe the Van Gujjars. Talk about them and how you became aware of them.
Michael Benanav:
I had already done a number of projects with nomadic communities. But one thing that I had not done was gone on, like, an actual migration with a tribe. And it was something I really wanted to do, and I was really fascinated by India in general. So I began just doing some research about nomadic tribes in India. And I came across this Van Gujjar tribe, and a lot about who they were as a culture--who they are as a culture. And also some of the challenges that they face in the modern world really struck me as, you know, both fascinating and compelling. And the fact that their migration takes them into the Himalayas was also really appealing, because if I can be somewhere beautiful, that's always a bonus.
Scott Brocato:
And the reason they do that is because at a certain time of year, it becomes too hot for them and the water buffaloes, correct? So they have to make that trek every year to the Himalayas.
Michael Benanav:
Yeah. Like most nomadic communities around the world, the Van Gujjars, their annual calendar, and where they move and why they move and when they move, is all determined by what's going on in the natural world. In other words, where a particular time of year, they can find food and water for their animals. And so every spring in April, that's when they leave the lowland jungles, because down there it's getting much, much too hot and all the food sources are disappearing. And they move up into these high meadows where the snow is melting and these, you know, great grassy meadows are emerging; and so up there there's plenty for their animals to eat all summer long.
Scott Brocato:
How did you connect with the particular tribe that you went with, and how were you able to ingratiate yourself with them? From what I read in the book, it wasn't that difficult.
Michael Benanav:
Right. Well before I went over there, I got in touch with an NGO, a non-profit organization, that worked with the Van Gujjars. And I told them who I was and what I wanted to do, and the director of this organization said, “Yeah, sure, this is possible; come on over and I'll introduce you to a family. And of course, it's up to the family if they're okay with you migrating with them.” That was the introduction that I needed. That opened the door. I didn't just go, you know, into the jungle and start knocking on huts alone to see if a family would let me migrate with them. And because they trusted the people who introduced me to them, I was starting from a baseline of trust, and they were really totally open to the idea of me traveling with them and documenting their migration.
Scott Brocato:
In the book you write that the Van Gujjar life, it thoroughly revolves around the water buffaloes that “in ways big and small, virtually everything about this nomadic culture is shaped by what's best for the animals.” In what ways?
Michael Benanav:
Well, the main big way is the migration. You know, the reason why they move is because they need to be in places where their animals can eat all year long. And so in the fall in the winter, that's down in these lowland jungles; and in the spring and summer, that's up in these high meadows.
But the other thing that's really crucial about this culture, their livelihoods are based almost entirely on these buffalo herds, and mainly the milk the buffaloes produce. So every morning they're milking these animals. And some of the milk they keep for themselves, for the family to consume, and then the rest of it, what's leftover, they'll sell. And then they use that money to buy whatever else they need. So really, their entire economy is buffalo- based.
But beyond that, they really have deep personal relationships with their animals. They love them, and they think of them like family members. And so they'll do everything that they can to make sure that not only that their buffaloes survive, but that they're well cared for, that the buffaloes are comfortable, and they have everything that they need.
Scott Brocato:
The migration was plagued with all sorts of problems, such as the government officials threatening to ban the family and others in the tribe from the meadows where they had summered for centuries. Why the threatened ban? What was the issue with the government?
Michael Benanav:
Well, the issue with the government was that the Van Gujjars, a number of Van Gujjar families, their traditional territory had been absorbed into a national park. Now that there was a national park, the government did not want the tribe to be accessing their ancestral lands. This is a very common policy when national parks or wildlife refuges are set up, and around the world, there's literally tens of millions of what are called “conservation refugees”. These are basically indigenous people who have been evicted from their ancestral lands after they become national parks--the idea being that people are seen as kind of an invasive species. And so the park officials want to remove them and just protect this place as a wildlife habitat. And so, because that's what was going on on their ancestral land, that's why the government was threatening to ban them and forbid them from using the land they've used for, you know, hundreds and over a thousand years.
Scott Brocato:
And you were arrested, were you not, for documenting their story?
Michael Benanav:
Yeah, I was arrested (laughs). And that was...I was talking to the director of the national park, really just trying to get his perspective, hear his point of view. And he was really not a reasonable person to be dealing with, and I think he just wanted to really show me who was the boss, you know, and who was in charge of this situation. And so he had me arrested and thrown into a police car at gunpoint and taken down to police station.
Scott Brocato:
And how long were you held?
Michael Benanav:
I was not held very long. Once it was explained to the police captain what was going on, he made a couple phone calls and then let me go. I think he realized that this was not good decision to be holding an American for bogus reasons.
So it actually turned out to be a good thing, because all of the Van Gujjars, like, they knew...all the Van Gujjars knew who I was with, knew what had happened. And very quickly the word spread to all these other members of the tribe, and they all kind of felt that I had gotten arrested for them. And also that now I really understood who this person was that they were dealing with, who was making all the decisions that their lives were hanging on. And so in terms of building trust with people within the tribe, this sealed the deal, where now they completely trusted me because I was willing to go to jail for them.
Scott Brocato:
How long did you stay with them?
Michael Benanav:
I was with them for between six and seven weeks.
Scott Brocato:
And what did you take away personally from your experience, and what do you want readers to take away from the book?
Michael Benanav:
Well, personally, the thing that really surprised me...I mean, I've done a lot of work in a lot of different places with a lot of different communities, and I was really surprised by how close I became to this family, this extended family that I was traveling with. I mean, I really came to...just love them. And when I left, I felt like...almost like a hole in my chest, I was missing them so. So there was just a really deep personal connection.
As far as what I hope readers take away from it? Well, one, just to have an understanding of this very endangered culture that a lot of people have never heard of, and that is also changing rapidly; as well as to come away with a sense of the complexity of some of the issues around conservation and creating national parks, and how that can impact the people whose land these parks are established on.
Scott Brocato:
Finally, let's talk about Friday night. You'll be here Friday night at 7:30 to read from the book. Will it be a reading and also a visual experience? Will you be showing pictures?
Michael Benanav:
I mean, in fact, it will mostly be a visual experience and storytelling. I’ll be doing some reading from the book. But I find that presenting-wise, it's just much more engaging for the audience to be, you know, really sort of visually immersed in this migration as well as hearing stories, rather than just having me stand up in front and read a bunch of stuff out of a book. So I'll be doing some reading, but a lot of it will be just visual storytelling.
