His studies in Nepal included culture change among the Raji of nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled agriculturalists; Himalayan shamanism; the role of sacred mountains in Tibetan Buddhism and Hinduism; the sacred hidden lands of Tibetan Buddhism (seven of which he has explored); and two of the world's last nomadic hunting and gathering tribes: the Raute and Kusunda. While in Nepal, he also directed Peace Corps Training Projects and was a member of teams that made some of the first rafting descents of Trisuli and Sun Kosi rivers. Elsewhere in South Asia, in 1977 he studied Muslim fishermen in the Maldive Islands (Indian Ocean).