Representation of Nepali Society in Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard
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Department of English
Abstract
This project considers Mattheissen’s views of his journey in the light of Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism, which raises important questions about how Westerners view other cultures. Much of the writing of The Snow Leopard is a bit of Western muscle that pictures Nepal, Nepali porters, guides and their cultural tendencies. On surface, the book seems a travel narrative enriched with Buddhist mystique but when we closely gaze by which Matthiessen describes Nepali society, the country folk, Sherpa porters travelling with him we find him in a difficult position. The book is filled with wilder language where no voice is given to Asians; he draws on ancient types viewing orient as a historical and apolitical. Not only have these but it seem, he is reducing all Nepalese into a type using oriental tropes. He has projected him as a spiritual seeker and a mystic but he demonstrates colonial aggression to fellow travel staffs and he tries to become expert of Buddhism not knowing enough by which we can argue that Matthiessen is working on classical vein of Orientalism. The representation of Nepali society in Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard is ideological and political. The indeterminate position of him as a travel writer and a western Zen practitioner makes him a critical reader of other culture