A Tribute to Christoph and Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf

Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf (1909-1995) was born and educated in Vienna. In 1949, he moved to London, where he became a lecturer at SOAS. He was soon promoted and became Chair of Asian Anthropology in 1951. Within a few years, he went back to India and more importantly to Nepal, which had officially opened to outsiders. Over the next two decades, he conducted extensive field research among the highland populations of Nepal, notably among the Sherpa. At the same time, he made several revisits to his earlier research sites in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. His wife, Betty Barnado, who assisted him during most of his field research trips since the 1940s, published a bibliography of works on the anthropology of South Asia.

This 40-minute experimental film about the Haimendorfs was made by Mark Turin in August 1996 using a Hi-8 camera and editing desk.

Please click on the image icon below to play the film (264 MB) or click here to download the film as an MP4 file.