Travel books
- Forgotten Kingdom, Peter Goullart, John Murray publishers ltd, 2002
Born in Russia in a family of merchants, Peter Goullart fled the Bolchevik Revolution with his mother and went to Shanghai.
In 1939, he settled down in Lijiang, Yunnan, where he stayed until Mao’s Liberation army arrived in 1947. Forgotten Kingdom is a unique account of his life and those of the people he daily mixed with: tibetan merchants and bandits, naxi chamans, slave Yi….Full of details about people’s customs and beliefs.
You can download this book on Pratyeka website
- Travels In Tartary, Thibet And China, 1844-1846, Evariste-Regis Huc, Routledge, 2004
In 1844, Evariste Huc accompanied by the father Gabet and a young Tibetan monk converted with Christianity undertakes an incredible trip towards Lhassa with the aim of establishing a mission there. Starting from Tartary (today’s Inner Mongolia ),they crossed the Yellow River and the Ordos Desert before reaching Gansu where they waited several months to join to a Tibetan embassy on its way back from Beijing. In January 1846, they eventually arrived in Lhassa where they immediately opened a small chapel. But the representative of the Middle Empire putted an end to this missionary attempt and send the three men back to Canton. In a colourful style, Huc recalls this tour without prejudices and with much humour even in the most dramatic
situations.
- Magic and Mystery in Tibet, INDUS – Harper Collins Publishers, 1993
My Journey to Lhasa: The Personal Story of the Only White Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City, 1927, Kessinger Publishing, 2003
Born in 1868, Louise Eugenie Alexandrine Marie David was a lyric singer, an anarchist,a member of the theosophic company and Freemasonry before devoting her life to her early passion for Eastern philosophies and to the Himalayan areas, thanks to the help of her very devoted husband. In 1924, she was the first western woman to enter Lhassa after an incredible trip started in Korea. David Neel left many writings: travel stories, translations of religious texts, philosophical essays of which you will find all the references on the David-Neel Foundation website.
To note, the excellent biography Forbidden Journey, Barbara and Michael Foster, HarperCollins, 1987, who informs us on the motivations, the private life and certain unsuspected aspects of t Alexandra‘s personality.
- Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrer, Grafton Bks, 2005.
On the point of leaving Pakistan, after having discovered a new climbing way in Nanga Parbat, the top of the Western Himalayas, Heinrich Harrer, a well known mountaineer, is surprised by the declaration of war of September 1939 and made prisoner by the English, in Ahmednagar ‘s camp, close to Bombay. After several escapes, two crossings of the Himalayas, an interminable walk on the desolate high plateaus of Changtang, Harrer reached Lhassa where he stayed five years. He became the confidant and adviser of the young Dalaï Lama until 1950’s chinese invasion. An impassioning account of which it is better to forget the film adaptation made by J.J. Annaud a few years ago.
- White Lotus, a publisher based in Bangkok reprinted many travelbooks written in the XIXth century. In its catalogue, you can find :
Travels on the Mekong: Cambodia, Laos and Yunnan, Louis de Carné, Bangkok, 1995 (first publication: 1872)
A Journey to Yunnan and the Opening of the Red River to Trade, Jean Dupuis, Bangkok, 1998
Further Travels in Laos and in Yunnan, Francis Garnier, Bangkok, 1996
A Journey to Yunnan in 1892, Louis Pichon, Bangkok, 1999
(first publication: 1893)
Searching for the Sources of the Irrawaddy, Emile Roux, Bangkok, 1999 (first publication: 1897)
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