Annapurna
If we had to choose the best webpage on Annapurna it would be the Annapurna page of the online Peakware World Mountain Encyclopaedia. However, the best web site is YetiZone. For a picture gallery of the Annapurna you can have a look at the homepage of Henk de Jong.
Maps
We asked copyright holder Let's Go, Inc. for permission to publish the Annapurna map which can be found in their travel guide. See also the map at lirung.com and the active map at Yetizone.
For a map with greater details, see giswebite.com.
Relief maps of the Annapurna area as viewed from 96,000 feet (29 km) can be seen at the Peakware World Mountain site. See also our own satelite page and Google Earth.

Bön
One of Tibet's oldest spiritual traditions is Bön. Nowadays it is considered to be the fifth school within Tibetan Buddhism. As with the other Tibetan Buddhist schools there is no official homepage. A good starting point is the website of the Ligmincha Institute, founded by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, pupil of Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche of the Triten Norbutse monastery in Nepal.
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Buddhism

Information
For information on Buddhism, we consider one of the best places to start might be Buddhanet, a nonprofit Buddhist information network. To learn more about Tibetan Buddhism one could read the survey by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.
There is also the Buddhist Studies WWW Virtual Library.

Links
If you do not find what you are looking for via this page, please have a look at the Global Resources for Buddhist Studies of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics. For an up to date Buddhist Bibliography of Amazon.Com, please see the website of Roger Garin-Michaud.

Glossery
See also a glossary of Buddhist terms provided by the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Vegetarianism
For information on Buddhism and vegetarianism, please see www.shabkar.org.

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Gelug
Gelug is one of the four major Tibetan Buddhist schools. The highest lama within the Gelug school is His Holiness Dalai Lama. Of all the schools in Tibetan Buddhism, the Gelug is the most active in spreading Tibetan Buddhism in the world. Recommended sites are the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). Of course there are many other sites, like the web sites on Gelek Rinpoche of the Jewel Heart Center in the United States and Holland.

Kagyu
The Karma Kagyu lineage is one of the four major Tibetan Buddhist schools. This lineage is connected to Muktinath via Shangpa Tulku Rinpoche. The head of the Kagyu school is Karmapa. One can consider the Kagyu school one school, however since 1992 there are two insitutional factions. For more information on this issue, see Karmapa-issue.org.

See also webpage of the new Kagyu nunnery near Chumig Gyatsa, the Tharpa Choeling Nunnery (Thaye Dorje lineage). The opening ceremony was held on the 4 October 2000.
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Nyingma
The lama and nuns of Muktinath-Chumig Gyatsa belong to the Nyingma school, the oldest of the four major Tibetan Buddhist schools. The Palyul site aims to offer a general understanding of the Nyingma school and its history, and provides news about activities of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche and Nyingma Centres world-wide.

Sakya
His Holiness Sakya Trizinis the Supreme Head of the Sakya Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, one of the four major Tibetan Buddhist schools. Sakya World is a reliable starting point with lots of links. See also on this website Chogye Trichen Rinpoche.

Online Texts
The religious texts section of the Web site of David Wiley contains a list of all kinds of religious texts, including Buddhist texts. See also Dharmanet or BuddhaNet.

Buddhist Teachings & Events
Nyingma
The abbot of Chumig Gyatsa, Lama Wangyal, does not give public teachings. However close to Muktinath/Chumig Gyatsa there are two other nunneries: the Nyingma Garwa Gompa with abbot TsokNyi Rinpoche (only ones per few years in Muktinath Valley). For the teaching schedule of TsokNyi Rinpoche; Buddhist pilgrimages; information on the support of the nuns of Chumig Gyatsa Gargon Abbey and more, please see the site of Pundarika Foundation.

Kagyu
The Kagyu lineage is connected to Muktinath via Shangpa Tulku Rinpoche. For his teaching schedule, Buddhist teachings and retreats, see Kagyu Institute for Buddhist Studues and Retreat Centre in Kartipur.
For schedules of other Buddhist teachers you could have a look at Dharmanet. And of course there is always the option to type in "teaching 2007 name of lama" in Google.Com.

Buddhist Women
For information on Buddhist women and female teachers of various Buddhist schools and their branches, please see Sakyadhita, the International Association of Buddhist Women.
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Community Development
The American Himalayan Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the people and ecology of the Himalayas. The AHF was founded in 1979. Richard Blum, chairman of the AHF, received the Light of Truth award from His Holiness Dalai Lama for his many years of work on behalf of the Tibetan people.
The nongovernmental organization Educate the Children conducts educational and community development projects in Nepal.
The Himalayan Explorers Club (HEC) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1996 with two primary objectives: to promote and facilitate environmental and cultural awareness and preservation in the Himalayan region, and to assist the local peoples of the region.
Himalayan Kingdom Foundation Trust (HKFT): The goal of the trust is to reverse the trend of local adults in Nepal's mountain regions leaving their local culture and going to the valleys in search of economic opportunities, by putting in place the required infrastructure to support, encourage, and market local development.

Digital Himalayan Archives
The Digital Himalaya Project of the University of Cambridge is digitising archival collections of ethnographic information from the Himalayan region. Individual examples from five major collections are currenlty available for online viewing.

Dzogchen
Dzogchen is considered by many practitioners to be the highest teaching within Tibetan Buddhism, going back to the oldest spiritual tradition in Tibet, Bön. Dzogchen can be considered both as a part of Tibetan Buddhism as well as independent from it. It was Namkhai Norbu, who brought Dzogchen to the West. A good page to start is the links page of the web site of the Dzogchen community in Denmark. See also the site of the Ligmincha Institute, founded by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in 1992, to preserve the Tibetan Bön culture and teachings, especially the practices of Dzogchen.
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Eco-Tourism
The Association for Protection of Environment and Culture (APEC) supports the protection of biological diversity such as wildlife, wetland species, forest resources, and development of the nation by organizing individuals and experts towards conservation of natural resources and their sustainable use. See also the World Conservation Union IUCN.
The Eco-tourism Explorer on the WWW is created by The Eco-tourism Society (TES). No doubt it is the best starting point for everybody who wants to find any kind of information about eco-tourism on the Web.
The Tourism Research Links site of René Waksberg is a must for researchers in the field of tourism. See also the links at Big Volcano Ecotourism Resource Centre; The Centre For Tourism Policy and Research.

Himalayan Art
A beautiful site is The Himalayan Art Project of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, which seeks to preserve the sacred art of the Himalayas.

Hinduism
The Hindu Universe site seems a good starting point on the Web for those looking for information on many aspects of Hinduism. It is produced by the Global Hindu Electronics Network (GHEN), which is a project of the Hindu Students Council. There is also a special GHEN site for women: Hindu Woman Universe. A great starting points are also the Hindu Bibliography of Roger Garin-Michaud or Britannica.com and http://www.hinduism.co.za/.
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