In Zomia Garden, writer, photographer, and editor Yutong Lin traces the legacy of botanical exploration in an area of the Himalaya-Hengduan Mountain chain known as Zomia, a term coined in 2002 to refer to the largest region of inhabitants not governed by a nation-state.
Lin, an artist and curator, returned to the region—her hometown—to retrace the travels of early twentieth-century plant hunters. The variable Himalayan topographies sustain an extraordinary variety of flora and fauna and, over the years, have inspired mythical imaginaries of bountiful lands. Zomia Garden focuses on Joseph Rock, a famous plant hunter in the 1920s whose approach to botany, landscape, and culture was transformed by his encounters with Indigenous Nakhi guides and their language and rituals.
Juxtaposing her photographs and itinerary alongside Rock’s, Lin untangles the histories of colonialism, mythmaking, and resistance woven into the hunt for rare plant species and botanical knowledge.
The book is a result of Lin’s participation in the Canadian Centre for Architecture Emerging Curator program, which aims to take the institution’s curatorial work into unexplored territories.
Design by NORM, Zurich
Printed by Druckerei zu Altenburg (DZA)
15 X 23 cm, 64 pages
BUNGEE EVENT:
Book Launch: Zomia Garden | December 4, 2025 7 PM
