| Contents | | v | |
| Preface | | ix | |
| Conventions | | xi | |
| | xix | |
| Known and Unknowable Prehistory |
| | 1 | (203) |
| | 2 | (58) |
| | 8 | (9) |
| | 17 | (16) |
| The language parasite and the symbiotic theory of language |
| | 33 | (27) |
| | 60 | (75) |
| Original Sin and our virtuous nature |
| | 60 | (6) |
| The splitting of the symbol and the birth of syntax |
| | 66 | (25) |
| Culture and the antiquity of language |
| | 91 | (21) |
| The survival of languages and of implicit world views |
| | 112 | (23) |
| Three Versions of Prehistory |
| | 135 | (69) |
| The monogeneticist time warp |
| | 145 | (5) |
| Gazing beyond the event horizon |
| | 150 | (13) |
| Mixed languages and the maternal strand |
| | 163 | (12) |
| | 175 | (13) |
| Global dispersals and Himalayan habitats |
| | 188 | (16) |
| Kings of the Forest and Distant Horizons |
| | 204 | (129) |
| South Asian Relict Groups |
| | 205 | (57) |
| | 205 | (12) |
| The aboriginals of Serendip |
| | 217 | (25) |
| | 242 | (11) |
| | 253 | (9) |
| | 262 | (36) |
| The vacillating fate of Vietnamese |
| | 266 | (4) |
| Austroasiatic literary languages |
| | 270 | (2) |
| | 272 | (3) |
| The people in the Abode of Clouds |
| | 275 | (5) |
| Austroasiatics of Southeast Asia and the Nicobars |
| | 280 | (9) |
| The Austroasiatic homeland |
| | 289 | (9) |
| Beyond the Himalayan Horizon and Back Again |
| | 298 | (35) |
| Austronesian and more speculation on Austric |
| | 305 | (7) |
| Daic, Hmong-Mien and the Austro-Tai theory |
| | 312 | (12) |
| | 324 | (4) |
| Daic languages in the Himalayan region |
| | 328 | (5) |
| The Tibeto-Burman Language Family |
| | 333 | (130) |
| From Turanian to Tibeto-Burman |
| | 334 | (74) |
| Indo-Chinese outlives Turanian |
| | 337 | (6) |
| The precarious position of Thai, Karen and Himalayan languages |
| | 343 | (5) |
| Several theories about Chinese |
| | 348 | (40) |
| Other Tibeto-Burman subgrouping proposals |
| | 388 | (20) |
| Neolithic and Bronze Age Volkerwanderungen |
| | 408 | (55) |
| Western Tibeto-Burmans and the Indian Eastern Neolithic |
| | 411 | (6) |
| | 417 | (4) |
| Northern Tibeto-Burmans and the Himalayas |
| | 421 | (12) |
| | 433 | (30) |
| The Brahmaputra and Beyond |
| | 463 | (127) |
| | 463 | (5) |
| The Mountains of the Sun Chariot |
| | 468 | (33) |
| | 473 | (6) |
| | 479 | (2) |
| | 481 | (15) |
| | 496 | (5) |
| Children of the Brahmaputra |
| | 501 | (72) |
| Kachari-Koch or Bodo-Koch |
| | 502 | (9) |
| | 511 | (5) |
| | 516 | (12) |
| The Garos of the Garo Hills |
| | 528 | (6) |
| The Koch subgroup and the Rajbangsis |
| | 534 | (8) |
| At the bend of the Brahmaputra |
| | 542 | (6) |
| | 548 | (19) |
| Northern Naga and Kachinic |
| | 567 | (6) |
| The Indo-Burmese Borderlands |
| | 573 | (17) |
| | 576 | (1) |
| The Angami-Pochuri Cluster |
| | 577 | (3) |
| The Zeme, Tangkhul and Meithei Clusters |
| | 580 | (3) |
| | 583 | (1) |
| | 584 | (6) |
| A Wave Washes Across the Southern Flank |
| | 590 | (236) |
| | 591 | (72) |
| Subjugation and acculturation of the Kirantis |
| | 600 | (14) |
| Divisions amongst the Kiranti |
| | 614 | (14) |
| Grammatical issues in Himalayan languages |
| | 628 | (35) |
| | 663 | (35) |
| | 665 | (13) |
| Yakkha, Chiling and the Athpahariya dialects |
| | 678 | (11) |
| Kiranti of the Upper Arun |
| | 689 | (9) |
| Central and Western Kiranti |
| | 698 | (30) |
| | 698 | (7) |
| The Kiranti of the southern hills |
| | 705 | (5) |
| Kiranti of the Upper Dudhkosi |
| | 710 | (12) |
| | 722 | (6) |
| Newaric or Para-Kiranti Languages |
| | 728 | (45) |
| The Licchavis and the Newars |
| | 733 | (8) |
| The Malla period and early European visitors |
| | 741 | (16) |
| The language of the Newars |
| | 757 | (9) |
| The Baram and the Thangmi |
| | 766 | (7) |
| Flotsam and Jetsam Along the Southern Slopes |
| | 773 | (53) |
| | 775 | (11) |
| | 786 | (8) |
| | 794 | (6) |
| The Lhokpu of southwestern Bhutan |
| | 800 | (11) |
| | 811 | (7) |
| | 818 | (8) |
| A Wave Laps Against the Northern Flank |
| | 826 | (168) |
| | 826 | (3) |
| Tibet and the Tibetan languages |
| | 829 | (105) |
| Documentation of the Tibetan language |
| | 846 | (9) |
| Inhabitants of hidden lands |
| | 855 | (15) |
| Bhutan, the duars and the British |
| | 870 | (21) |
| Dzongkha and her three sisters |
| | 891 | (17) |
| | 908 | (26) |
| The West Himalayish Languages |
| | 934 | (24) |
| West Himalayish south of the great Himalayan divide |
| | 935 | (11) |
| Zhangzhung, the sacred language of Bon |
| | 946 | (12) |
| | 958 | (36) |
| Gurung, Tamang and Thakali |
| | 958 | (19) |
| Scattered Tamangic languages |
| | 977 | (10) |
| | 987 | (7) |
| Zagrosians and Indo-Europeans |
| | 994 | (183) |
| The Elamites and the Dravidian Indus |
| | 995 | (44) |
| The Elamites and the Indus script |
| | 999 | (3) |
| Antecedents of the Elamite and Indus civilisations |
| | 1002 | (2) |
| Post-glacial environments |
| | 1004 | (7) |
| The Aryans come to the Indus Valley |
| | 1011 | (6) |
| | 1017 | (12) |
| Brahui and the Dravidian Indus |
| | 1029 | (10) |
| The Coming of the Indo-Europeans |
| | 1039 | (36) |
| `van een ende de selve afcomste' |
| | 1039 | (12) |
| The homeland and branches of Indo-European |
| | 1051 | (14) |
| The linguistic Piltdown Man or just wishful thinking? |
| | 1065 | (5) |
| The Indo-Aryan invasion of the Subcontinent |
| | 1070 | (5) |
| Indo-Europeans of the Himalayas |
| | 1075 | (102) |
| The Iranians come to Persia |
| | 1076 | (2) |
| Infidels in the Land of Enlightenment |
| | 1078 | (8) |
| Aryan society and language |
| | 1086 | (17) |
| The rise of Nepal and Nepali |
| | 1103 | (15) |
| The Rana period and the Restoration |
| | 1118 | (15) |
| | 1133 | (10) |
| The great eastward exodus |
| | 1143 | (13) |
| Indo-Aryans of the foothills and plains |
| | 1156 | (21) |
| | 1177 | (47) |
| The Burusho and Burushaski |
| | 1177 | (9) |
| Stray Siberians in the Himalayas |
| | 1186 | (20) |
| Remote relations of the Yenisseian languages |
| | 1195 | (3) |
| Greater Yenisseian and Burushaski |
| | 1198 | (4) |
| Burusho and Yenisseians in the archaeological record |
| | 1202 | (4) |
| The Huns and the Himalayas |
| | 1206 | (18) |
| Distant relatives and their neighbours |
| | 1213 | (11) |
| Bibliography | | 1224 | (135) |
| Index | | 1359 | |
