Running on the Roof of the World


Book Description

A story of adventure, survival, courage, and hope, set in the vivid Himalayan landscape of Tibet and India that introduces young readers to a fascinating part of the world and the threat to its people's religious freedom.




The Museum on the Roof of the World


Book Description

For millions of people around the world, Tibet is a domain of undisturbed tradition, the Dalai Lama a spiritual guide. By contrast, the Tibet Museum opened in Lhasa by the Chinese in 1999 was designed to reclassify Tibetan objects as cultural relics and the Dalai Lama as obsolete. Suggesting that both these views are suspect, Clare E. Harris argues in The Museum on the Roof of the World that for the past one hundred and fifty years, British and Chinese collectors and curators have tried to convert Tibet itself into a museum, an image some Tibetans have begun to contest. This book is a powerful account of the museums created by, for, or on behalf of Tibetans and the nationalist agendas that have played out in them. Harris begins with the British public’s first encounter with Tibetan culture in 1854. She then examines the role of imperial collectors and photographers in representations of the region and visits competing museums of Tibet in India and Lhasa. Drawing on fieldwork in Tibetan communities, she also documents the activities of contemporary Tibetan artists as they try to displace the utopian visions of their country prevalent in the West, as well as the negative assessments of their heritage common in China. Illustrated with many previously unpublished images, this book addresses the pressing question of who has the right to represent Tibet in museums and beyond.




First Across the Roof of the World


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The Roof of the World


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The Most Beautiful Roof in the World


Book Description

From Newbery Honor author Kathryn Lasky comes a fascinating journey through the rainforest canopy that's perfect for budding environmentalists.




Breathing on the Roof of the World


Book Description

This book is an informal autobiography by John West MD PhD. He obtained his medical degree in Adelaide, Australia and then spent 15 years mainly at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital in London where he, with others, used radioactive oxygen-15 to make the first description of the uneven regional distribution of blood flow in the lung. In 1960-1961, he was a member of the Himalayan Scientific and Mountaineering Expedition led by Sir Edmund Hillary who had made the first ascent of Mt Everest 7 years before. During the expedition about 6 scientists spent up to three months at an altitude of 5800 m studying the effects of this very high altitude on human physiology. Because of his interests in the effects of gravity on the lung, Dr. West spent a year at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California in 1967-1968. While there he submitted a proposal to NASA to measure pulmonary function of astronauts in space, and this was funded. Later, in 1981 he organized the American Medical Research Expedition to Everest during which the first measurements of human physiology on the summit, altitude 8848 m, were obtained. In the 1990’s, Dr. West’s team made the first comprehensive measurements of pulmonary function of astronauts in space using SpaceLab which was taken up in the Shuttle.




On the Roof of the World


Book Description

Throughout its history the Guardian has had unparalleled access to mountaineers and climbers, and its coverage of the sport is second to none. From Edward Whymper's conquest of the Matterhorn in 1865 through to the first ever ascent of Everest in 1953, and on to the extreme climbing (and associated apparatus) that dominates the modern-day incarnation of the sport, the paper has chronicled every development with insight and intelligence. This beguiling collection draws together a selection of Guardian writing that is both informative and celebratory, tracking the sport's history and uncovering how public perception has changed over time. - Postings on how cigarettes 'aided breathing' on some of the earliest Everest expeditions - Victorian advice to 'lady climbers': 'Small rings should be sewn inside the seams of the skirt ... [so] that the whole dress may be drawn up at a moment's notice to the requisite height' - Articles on scrambling, fell-running, rock-climbing and rambling. Whether you're a serious mountaineer or a weekend rambler, On the Roof of the World is packed full of insights and stories that make it the perfect bedside companion.




Around the Roof of the World


Book Description

Travelers and mountaineers recount their journeys and discoveries in some of the most remote places in the world




Trespassers on the Roof of the World


Book Description

No other land has captured man's imagination quite like Tibet. Hidden away behind the highest mountains on earth, and ruled over by a mysterious God-king, it was for centuries a land forbidden to all outsiders. In this remarkable and ultimately tragic narrative, Peter Hopkirk recounts the forcible opening up of this medieval Buddhist kingdom by inquisitive Western travellers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the race to reach Lhasa, Tibet's sacred capital. This epic, often harrowing tale, which ends with the Chinese invasion of 1950, draws on a colourful cast of gatecrashers from nine different countries. Among them were adventurous young officers on Great Game missions, explorers and mountaineers, mystics and missionaries. All took their lives in their hands, including three intrepid women. Some were never to return.




Jesuit on the Roof of the World


Book Description

- And highly controversial - appeal of Hermetic philosophy in the Asian missions; the political underbelly of the Chinese Rites Controversy; and the persistent European fascination with the land of snows."--Résumé de l'éditeur.