Edwin Bernbaum (born 27 August 1945), also known as Ed Bernbaum, is an American scholar of comparative religion and mythology, mountaineer, author, public speaker, and leadership coach. He is noted for his interpretations and writings about

sacred mountains Sacred mountains are central to certain religions, and are usually the subjects of many legends. For many, the most symbolic aspect of a mountain is the peak because it is believed that it is closest to heaven or other religious realms. Many reli ...

and sacred natural sites all across the world, as well organising and promoting their conservation.

Personal life

He was born to Maurice M. Bernbaum and Betty Hahn Bernbaum. His father was a career diplomat in the American Foreign Service. Edwin is married to Diane Bernbaum, former director of the

Midrasha A ' (Hebrew: ; : ), typically, is an institute of Torah study for women of post-high-school age, somewhat equivalent to a men's yeshiva; most are located in Israel. The midrasha is also somewhat parallel to a "women's seminary" (Hebrew "semin ...

at Berkeley. Edwin and Dianne have an elder son, David. Their younger son Jonathan Bernbaum passed away in December 2016 at the age of 34, in a warehouse fire in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

that destroyed the Ghost Ship artists' collective.

Education

Bernbaum obtained a BA in mathematics from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

and a PhD in Asian Studies from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. He also did additional graduate work in social college and anthropology at the

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Career

Mountaineering

Bernbaum has climbed several mountains in the Andes and the Himalayas. He began climbing in Ecuador, where his father was in the foreign service. In the Andes, some of his summits include Mt.

Cotopaxi Cotopaxi () is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located near Latacunga city of Cotopaxi Province, about south of Quito, and northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador (after Chim ...

and the first ascent of South Antizana. In 1965, he was part of the expedition that made the first ascent of the northwest ridge of Mt St Elias in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. In 1968, as a

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...

volunteer in Nepal, he attempted a peak in the

Annapurna Annapurna (; ) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the 10th highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the difficulty and danger involved in its as ...

range, during which he got caught in an

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a Grade (slope), slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be triggered spontaneously, by factors such as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, othe ...

with another climber and got swept down 1,000 feet. Bernbaum's interest in the role of mountains in religion and mythology was born soon after this event, when he met the head

Lama Lama () is a title bestowed to a realized practitioner of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. Not all monks are lamas, while nuns and female practitioners can be recognized and entitled as lamas. The Tibetan word ''la-ma'' means "high mother", ...

of the Tengboche monastery, while climbing a peak near the foot of Mt Everest. The Lama told him about

Shambhala Shambhala (, ),Śambhala m. (also written Sambhala): Name of a town (situated between the Rathaprā and Ganges, and identified by some with Sambhal in Moradabad; the town or district of Śambhala is fabled to be the place where Kalki, the last ...

, a

Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Tibet's Kunlun Mountains, Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel '' Lost Horizon'' by the British author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently ...

-like realm of peace and contentment in

Buddhist cosmology Buddhist cosmology is the description of the shape and evolution of the Universe according to Buddhist Tripitaka, scriptures and Atthakatha, commentaries. It consists of a temporal and a spatial cosmology. The temporal cosmology describes the ...

. Bernbaum was featured in "Beyond the Mountaintops: Extraordinary Mountaineers, Extraordinary People," an exhibition at the American Mountaineering Museum on eight climbers (including Hillary and Norgay, among others) who pioneered advances in climbing and humankind.

Sacred natural sites and conservation

Bernbaum is a Senior Fellow and former programme director of The Mountain Institute (TMI). At the TMI, he founded and directed the 'Sacred Mountains Program', which developed interpretive materials with various US

National Parks A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

(including

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is a national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service ...

Great Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains and form part of the Blue Ridg ...

, and

Hawai'i Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...

) based on the cultural and spiritual significance of their natural features. Since 2012, Bernbaum has been co-chair of the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

group on the 'Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas' (CSVPA). He has also worked with ICIMOD on developing a roadmap to nominate the Kailash Sacred Landscape (a transboundary region at the western tri-junction of India, Nepal, and China) as a

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Leadership coaching

At the

Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

, with Mark Useem, Bernbaum created, led, and instructed in a leadership development programme for executive MBAs and alumni that took them on treks through the Himalayas (to the foot of Mt Everest) and

the Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

Reception of books by Bernbaum

Bernbaum's first book ''The Way to Shambhala'' (1980) is a study of Tibetan myths and legends about hidden sanctuaries resembling Shangri La of the James Hilton novel '' Lost Horizon''. Robert Thurman commends the book as a 'groundbreaking account' that brings 'considerable clarity to the much obscured issue of

and Buddhist escatology', which are vivid themes in various segments of Asian Buddhist folklore and religion. Ana Lopes calls this book 'the most complete study of Shambhala published in the West.' Bernbaum's second book ''Sacred Mountains of the World'' (1990) explores the key role of mountains such as Sinai, Olympus, and Fuji in the mythologies, religions, history, and art of cultures around the world. According to Prof. Hermann Kreutzmann (of Freie University, Berlin), this book has come to be regarded as a famous, genre-defining work on the topic of

. About the 1997 edition of this book, Danny Yee notes that it covers sacred mountains in the Himalayas, China, Central Asia, Japan, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Europe, Africa, North America, Latin America, and Oceania. However, Bernbaum manages to always attend to the individuality of mountains, and argues against reducing their understanding to a general theory about sacred mountains, even while identifying some common themes and recurrent patterns among them. Besides, the production of the book in large format, glossy paper, and with lots of colour photographs helps bring the subject to life. In 2022, the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

brought out a lower-priced, black-and-white edition of ''Sacred Mountains''. The first edition of ''Sacred Mountains of the World'' (1990) won the

Commonwealth Club of California The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. Membership is open to ...

's gold medal. It was also the basis of an exhibition of Bernbaum's photographs at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Bibliography

Books

* Bernbaum, Edwin. ''Sacred mountains of the world. Berkeley.'' University of California Press, 1997 (first published by Sierra Book Club, 1990). * Bernbaum, Edwin. ''Sacred mountains of the world''. Updated edition, Cambridge University Press, 2022. * Bernbaum, Edwin. ''The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas.'' Shambhala Press, 2001 (first published by Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1980).

Articles and book chapters

* Bernbaum, Edwin. "The way of symbols: The use of symbols in Tibetan mysticism." ''The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology'' 6, no. 2 (1974): 93. * Bernbaum, E. (1981). Wrathful deities ibetan myth and religion; plates ''Parabola'', 6 (4), 56-61. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred Space." The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 12." (1987): 526-535. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred mountains." ''Parabola - Myth, Tradition and the Search for Meaning'' 13, no. 4 (1988): 12-18. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "The Himalayas, realm of the sacred." ''The power of place'' (1991): 107-119. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "To Lhasa and Beyond: Diary of the Expedition to Tibet in the Year 1948." ''The Pacific world'' 7 (1991): 105-107. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Secrets of the sacred hills." ''People and the Planet'' 8, no. 5 (1996). * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred mountains of east Asia and the Pacific region: implications for cultural and environmental preservation." ''MOUNTAINS OF EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC'' (1996): 2. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred mountains: implications for protected area management." ''Protected Areas Programme. Mountain Protected Areas. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland'' 6, no. 1 (1996): 41-48. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred mountains." ''UNESCO Courier'' 50, no. 9 (1997): 34-37. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "The spiritual and cultural significance of mountains." ''Mountains of the World-A Global Priority, Parthenon, Oxford, UK'' (1997). * Bernbaum, Edwin. "The dancer's sleeve IN: Parabola. Mt. Kisco, NY v. 19, no. 3." (1998). * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Restoring Shiva's Hair." ''Natural history'' 107, no. 1 (1998): 84-84. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Mountains: the heights of biodiversity." ''Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity, United Nations Environment Programme’s Complementary Contribution to the Global Biodiversity Assessment'' (1999): 327-343. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Badrinath's Trees: Local Forests Being Restored as Pilgrims Now Plant Trees as Offering to God." ''Hinduism Today, May'' (1999). * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Two projects illustrating the role of cultural and spiritual values in restoring and protecting mountain environments." ''Revue de Géographie Alpine'' 89, no. 2 (2001): 139-140. * Bernbaum, E., 2001. Sacred mountains: mountain themes and cultural landscapes. In ''UNESCO thematic expert meeting on Asia-Pacific sacred mountains. Final report'' (pp. p-67). * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Mountains of inspiration." ''Extreme Landscape: The Lure of Mountain Spaces'' (2002): 133-53. * Messerli, Bruno, and Edwin Bernbaum. "The role of culture, education, and science for sustainable mountain development." ''Key Issues for Mountain Areas'' (2004): 210-234. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred Mountains of the world: An overview." In ''Conserving Cultural and Biological Diversity: The role of sacred natural sites and cultural landscapes. International Symposium, Japan'', vol. 30, pp. 26-33. 2005. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred mountains: Themes and teachings." ''Mountain Research and Development'' 26, no. 4 (2006): 304-309. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "The Heights of Inspiration: The Cultural and Spiritual Meaning of Mountains as a Basis for Interpretation and Conservation." Protected Areas and Spirituality: Proceedings of the First Workshop of the Delos Initiative - Monsterrat 2006 (eds. Josep-Maria Mallarach and Thymio Papayannis): 101-112. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Peak Paradigms: Mountain Metaphors of Leadership and Teamwork." ''Wharton Leadership Digest'' 12, no. 11 (2008). * Bernbaum, Edwin. "The Spiritual and Cultural Significance of National Parks.(US Department of the State)." ''National Parks, National Legacy. eJournal USA'' 17 (2008): 5-8. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred mountains and global changes: impacts and responses." In ''Sacred Natural Sites'', pp. 33-41. Routledge, 2012. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred mountains and national parks: spiritual and cultural values as a foundation for environmental conservation." ''Sacred Species and Sites: Advances in Biocultural Conservation'' (2012): 83-96. * Bernbaum, Edwin, and Larry W. Price. "Attitudes toward mountains." ''Mountain geography: Physical and human dimensions'' (2013): 253-266. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred mountains in Asia: Themes and implications for protected areas." In ''Asian sacred natural sites'', pp. 52-62. Routledge, 2016. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "The cultural and spiritual significance of nature in the management and governance of protected areas." In ''The George Wright Forum'', vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 168-179. George Wright Society, 2017. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Sacred mountains." ''Indigeneity and the sacred: Indigenous revival and the conservation of sacred natural sites in the Americas'' 22 (2017): 92-104. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "The spiritual and cultural significance of nature: Inspiring connections between people and parks." ''Science, Conservation and Parks. University of Chicago Press, Chicago'' (2017): 294-311. * Verschuuren, Bas, Josep-Maria Mallarach, and Edwin Bernbaum. "Making the cultural and spiritual significance of nature work for protected areas." ''Oryx'' 52, no. 2 (2018): 213-213. * Mallarach, Josep-Maria, Fabrizio Frascaroli, Will Tuladhar-Douglas, Jonathan Liljeblad, Radhika Borde, Edwin Bernbaum, and Bas Verschuuren. "Implications of the diversity of concepts and values of nature in the management and governance of protected and conserved areas." In ''Cultural and spiritual significance of nature in protected areas'', pp. 21-35. Routledge, 2018. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "The cultural and spiritual significance of nature: Involving the general public in the management and governance of protected areas." In ''Cultural and Spiritual Significance of Nature in Protected Areas'', pp. 133-146. Routledge, 2018. * Bernbaum, Edwin, and Bas Verschuuren. "The Cultural and Spiritual Significance of Nature in the Management and Governance of Protected Areas and World Heritage Sites." (2019): 1-18. * Bernbaum, Edwin, and Bas Verschuuren. "Incorporating Nature and Culture into the Daily Management of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument." (2019): 1-19. * Verschuuren, Bas, Josep-Maria Mallarach, Edwin Bernbaum, Jeremy Spoon, Steve Brown, Radhika Borde, Jessica Brown et al. ''Cultural and spiritual significance of nature: guidance for protected and conserved area governance and management''. Vol. 32. IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resour, 2021. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "The spiritual and cultural importance of mountains." In ''Montology Palimpsest: A Primer of Mountain Geographies'', pp. 213-224. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2023. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "The Sacred Identity of Mountains." In ''Mountain Lexicon: A Corpus of Montology and Innovation'', pp. 69-72. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2024. * Sarmiento, Fausto O., and Edwin Bernbaum. "Named and Gendered Mountains." In ''Mountain Lexicon: A Corpus of Montology and Innovation'', pp. 79-87. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2024. * Bernbaum, Edwin. "Jon Mathieu, Mount Sacred: A Brief Global History of Holy Mountains Since 1500." ''Journal for the study of religion, nature and culture'' 18 (2024): 1-2.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernbaum, Edwin Scholars of comparative religion American mountain climbers People from Berkeley, California University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard University alumni Harvard College alumni American Jews Jewish American writers American nature writers American conservationists 1945 births Living people