Woodcarving forms an integral and unalienable part of the socio-cultural system of the people of the Himalayan region. This book discusses not only the woodcarvings themselves, but also the geophysical environment that has nurtured this art, and the people who have been practising and patronising it.  The book include a chapter on the religious, therapeutic and structural uses of the deodar wood, the principal woodcarving medium; a chapter on the carvers and patrons of the art of woodcarving --their ethnicity, socio-cultural aspects, belief-system etc and chapters on woodcarvings found in the wooden temples of the Himalayan interiors, residential houses and ancient palaces of the region.  With bibliography and index.