Author : Francis Kingdon Ward
Publisher : Antique Collectors Club Dist
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 12,41 MB
Release : 2008
Category : Brahmaputra River
ISBN : 9781851495160
First published in 1926, this is the fascinating account of plant-hunter and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward's most important epedition. Kenneth Cox, Kenneth Storm, Jr., and Ian Baker have spent the last fifteen years retracing Ward's route.
Author : Francis Kingdon Ward
Publisher : ACC Distribution
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 26,33 MB
Release : 2001
Category : Art
ISBN :
"This new edition contains the original Kingdon Ward text (with about fifty of his own photographs from the archive at the Royal Geographical Society) and extensive additional material including a new Foreword by Kingdon Ward's widow, Jean Rasmussen, a brief biography of Kingdon Ward, a history of the exploration and geography of the region, an account of the religious significance of the area as a a place of pilgrimage, a note on the geology and more than 250 colour photographs with detailed captions on the plants of the area, most of which are described by Kingdon Ward in the original text." "There are first person accounts of recent expeditions to the area by Ken Cox and Ken Storm, Jr. and a photographic essay documents for the first time in a book the 'new' Hidden Falls located in the portion of the gorge left unexplored by Frank Kingdon Ward and Lord Cawdor in 1924."--BOOK JACKET.
Author : Francis Kingdon-Ward
Publisher :
Page : 406 pages
File Size : 46,90 MB
Release : 1926
Category : Botany
ISBN :
Author : Ian Baker
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 546 pages
File Size : 21,53 MB
Release : 2006-05-02
Category : Religion
ISBN : 110111780X
The myth of Shangri-la originates in Tibetan Buddhist beliefs in beyul, or hidden lands, sacred sanctuaries that reveal themselves to devout pilgrims and in times of crisis. The more remote and inaccessible the beyul, the vaster its reputed qualities. Ancient Tibetan prophecies declare that the greatest of all hidden lands lies at the heart of the forbidding Tsangpo Gorge, deep in the Himalayas and veiled by a colossal waterfall. Nineteenth-century accounts of this fabled waterfall inspired a series of ill-fated European expeditions that ended prematurely in 1925 when the intrepid British plant collector Frank Kingdon-Ward penetrated all but a five-mile section of the Tsangpo’s innermost gorge and declared that the falls were no more than a “religious myth” and a “romance of geography.” The heart of the Tsangpo Gorge remained a blank spot on the map of world exploration until world-class climber and Buddhist scholar Ian Baker delved into the legends. Whatever cryptic Tibetan scrolls or past explorers had said about the Tsangpo’s innermost gorge, Baker determined, could be verified only by exploring the uncharted five-mile gap. After several years of encountering sheer cliffs, maelstroms of impassable white water, and dense leech-infested jungles, on the last of a series of extraordinary expeditions, Baker and his National Geographic–sponsored team reached the depths of the Tsangpo Gorge. They made news worldwide by finding there a 108-foot-high waterfall, the legendary grail of Western explorers and Tibetan seekers alike. The Heart of the World is one of the most captivating stories of exploration and discovery in recent memory—an extraordinary journey to one of the wildest and most inaccessible places on earth and a pilgrimage to the heart of the Tibetan Buddhist faith.
Author : Ed Douglas
Publisher : National Geographic Books
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 13,90 MB
Release : 2022-01-18
Category : History
ISBN : 0393882462
A magisterial history of the Himalaya: an epic story of peoples, cultures, and adventures among the world’s highest mountains. For centuries, the unique and astonishing geography of the Himalaya has attracted those in search of spiritual and literal elevation: pilgrims, adventurers, and mountaineers seeking to test themselves among the world’s most spectacular and challenging peaks. But far from being wild and barren, the Himalaya has been home to a diversity of indigenous and local cultures, a crucible of world religions, a crossroads for trade, and a meeting point and conflict zone for empires past and present. In this landmark work, nearly two decades in the making, Ed Douglas makes a thrilling case for the Himalaya’s importance in global history and offers a soaring account of life at the "roof of the world." Spanning millennia, from the earliest inhabitants to the present conflicts over Tibet and Everest, Himalaya explores history, culture, climate, geography, and politics. Douglas profiles the great kings of Kathmandu and Nepal; he describes the architects who built the towering white Stupas that distinguish Himalayan architecture; and he traces the flourishing evolution of Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism that brought Himalayan spirituality to the world. He also depicts with great drama the story of how the East India Company grappled for dominance with China’s emperors, how India fought Mao’s Communists, and how mass tourism and ecological transformation are obscuring the bloody legacy of the Cold War. Himalaya is history written on the grandest yet also the most human scale—encompassing geology and genetics, botany and art, and bursting with stories of courage and resourcefulness.
Author : M. P. Searle
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 463 pages
File Size : 34,59 MB
Release : 2013-03-28
Category : History
ISBN : 0199653003
Gargantuan geological forces created the spectacular mountain ranges of the Himalaya and Karakoram. Mike Searle, one of the world's most experienced field geologists, tells the scientific story, illustrating it with his own photographs, and accounts of his mountaineering and research in the region.
Author : Francis Kingdon-Ward
Publisher :
Page : 414 pages
File Size : 19,78 MB
Release : 1913
Category : Botany
ISBN :
Author : Jane Brown
Publisher : David R. Godine Publisher
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 33,22 MB
Release : 2006
Category : Gardening
ISBN : 9781567923124
"From the towering Burmese magnificum, with its three-foot-diameter trunk and its masses of sweet-smelling purple flowers, to the potted pink azalea, glowing like a burning bush on the backyard garden patio, Rhododendron is a genus of infinite variety and beauty. There are 1,025 known species: it is a native of the snows of the Himalayas and the swamps of the Carolinas, the jungles of Borneo and the island inlets of Japan. It is also one of the oldest of plants - many believe the dove that returned to Noah's ark was carrying a rhododendron sprig - although it has been known to western horticulture for only 300 years. The curious history of Westerners and rhododendrons is full of swashbuckling plant collectors and visionary gardeners, colonial violence and ecological destruction, stunning botanical successes and bitter business disappointments. And it is here related with consummate skill by Jane Brown, an English garden writer."--BOOK JACKET.
Author :
Publisher :
Page : 1440 pages
File Size : 25,16 MB
Release : 1928
Category : Agriculture
ISBN :
Author : Michael McRae
Publisher : Broadway Books
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 40,85 MB
Release : 2012-04-25
Category : History
ISBN : 0767913922
The story of the quest for a real-life Shangri-La in the darkest heart of the Himalayas– a century-long obsession to reach the sacred hidden center of one of the world's last uncharted realms. At the far eastern end of the Himalayas in Tibet lies the Tsangpo River Gorge, known as “the great romance of geography” during the nineteenth century's golden age of exploration. Here the mighty Tsangpo funnels into an impenetrable canyon three miles deep, walled off from the outside world by twenty-five thousand foot peaks. Like the earthly paradise of Shangri-La immortalized in James Hilton's classic 1933 novel Lost Horizon, the Tsangpo River Gorge is a refuge revered for centuries by Tibetan Buddhists–and later in Western imagination–as a sanctuary in times of strife as well as a gateway to nirvana. The Siege of Shangri-La tells the story of this fabled land's exploration as both a geographical and spiritual destination–and chronicles the discovery at the end of the last millennium of the truth behind the myths and rumors about it. Veteran journalist Michael McRae traces the gorge's exploratory history from the clandestine missions of surveyor-spies called pundits and botanical expeditions of naturalists in the early twentieth century to the recent investigations of scholars, adventurers, and pilgrims seeking the "Hidden Falls," of the Tsangpo, which purportedly rivals Niagara in size and serves as the gateway to paradise. Each explorer's narrative provides increasing evidence of why the gorge has been mythologized in Eastern and Western lore as one of the world's most alluring blanks on the map–and a supreme test of human will. Taking readers on a guided tour of the gorge's landscape, physical and metaphysical, McRae presents an insightful look at the pursuit of glory and enlightenment that has played out in this mysterious land with sometimes disastrous consequences. The Siege of Shangri-La is a fascinating journey through the inner recesses of a remote, mystical world and the minds of those who have attempted to reach it. From the Hardcover edition.
