Customer Reviews

The Soul of the Rhino: A Nepali Adventure with Kings and Elephant Drivers, Billionaires and Bureaucrats, Shamans and Scientists, and the Indian Rhinoceros

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Americans have a hard enough time understanding one eastern religion, never mind two entertwined into one, like the combination of Buddhism and Hiduism followed in Nepal. A large part of understanding what happens in this book is wrapping one's head around a very different culture from our own.

The author has spent a life in attempting to save rhinos and their habitats in his native country. He gained a western education, and, as such, was deeply conflicted when ordered by his king to take part in an ancient tradition - helping the king to kill a rhino. His story leads to an unexpected result, the discovery of his own soul inside one of the majestic beasts.

The book ends with Nepal in turmoil, and the future of the one-horned rhino in sincere doubt. It's the kind of ending that sends the reader straight to the internet for the latest political news, to find out whether or not the situation has been resolved.

I was skeptical about the title of this book, but enchanted with the picture on the cover. In my hands, there was absolutely no marketing hype. This book will capture your heart with Hemanta Mishra's clarity, humanity and commitment.

Mishra has worked in Asia on a number of conservation projects for over 30 years. This book tells the story of efforts to save the greater one-horned Asian rhino from extinction. He calls it "a mystical beast legendary for its power, its sexual energy, its unpredictable temperament, and its prodigious strength." He describes the political violence in Nepal beginning with the massacre of the king's family in 2001 by the eldest son and ending with the Maoist insurgency.

Kings play a key role in the conservation efforts. The murder of the recent king led to its now uncertain future. In the Tarpan ceremony a Nepalese king must hunt and kill a male rhino and offer the beast's blood in a prayer for peace and prosperity.

Mishra's book puts humanity into the Smithsonian's summary of the status of these rhinos: "Greater one-horned Asian rhinoceroses once ranged from Pakistan across northern India to Nepal, Bhutan, and the border with Myanmar (Burma), and perhaps ranged even further, into southern China. Today, they are confined to a few small, protected populations totaling about 2,000 animals. Most live in several parks in India and in Nepal's Royal Chitwan National Park."

Hemanta Mishra worked in the Nepalese wildlife office in the early 1970s and ran the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation. He was awarded the J. Paul Getty Prize for Natural Protection in 1987 for "for his ground breaking biotic studies on Mt. Everest, his development of Nepal's park systems, and his work on implementation of "Operation Tiger," the largest conservation project in Asia."

I agree completely with "Scientific American": "Mishra, a Nepalese wildlife biologist trained in the West, is not a professional writer, but his intelligence and wit make this a mesmerizing account that intertwines politics, conservation and tensions between the traditions of East and West."

You can hear Mishra discuss his book and his conservation efforts on Leonard Lopat Show on the WNYC website. You'll hear his voice for a long time after you read his book.


Robert C. Ross 2007 2008

I am a zoo professional working on conservation issues in Asia and have long heard about this author and his work, but had not read the book yet. It exceeded my expectations and was a very enjoyable read as well as informative and enlightening. I would encourage anyone in the field of wildlife conservation to pick this up. The author and Nepal's successes in Chitwan are models for other regions.