Himalayan masculinities

‘Where are the Himalaya(s), what are the Himalaya(s)?’ was a question asked to one of the editors of this special issue more than a decade ago at a Himalayan Studies conference in Boulder, Colorado. It was both an unsettling question, given the dozens of people around us sharing stories about the ‘subject’ in question, and, in retrospect, an unanswerable one. The interrogator, an elderly Tibetan monk from Himachal Pradesh, India, followed up this rhetorical query with, ‘It would be difficult beta [son], to explain to you [all the conference participants] the many different Himalayas that I have met in my life…some of which are my relatives’. As we introduce this special issue, the above exchange animates our narrative choices.