1. ISBN13: 9781741045697
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Review :

Travelling in Tibet

Tibet - Venture to a High Plain (Lonely Planet Country Guide) (2002) is a really good book to get you into the feel of Tibet. It is packed full of useful information, travel routes, trekking, permits, places to stay and eat etc. and had a very useful glossary term and Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese basic languages phrases at the back.

The book recommends places to visit, costing, time of the year to visits what to see, transport links, what to be aware off, question to ask, what not to ask, what to avoid and the endless rounds of permits and stop checkpoints from the Chinese PSB.

Good travel book, interspersed with history, facts, stories and much useful information with many maps.



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Lonely Planet - Always a good choice

The Lonely Planet series never disappoints. It always has great information and tips that really help out. I like how honest the writers are about both the positive and negative aspects of the places they are reviewing. When travelling the books become my number 1 resource.

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Lonely Planet Tibet

The book was an invaluable resource of recent information about Tibet -- from weather, tours, customs, etiquette.

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Finding Tibet in China

This guide has a level of detail that could only be provided by those who have been to this area of China. The status of Tibet is a sensitive issue both in China and in other parts of the world. It is nice to have a book such as this that acknowledges Tibet's uniqueness in geography, culture, people and religion. Not only is the level of detail significant, but there is great practicality in what is written. When traveling to a country half way around the world, a person look forward to being surprised in what they see and experience. But there are surprises that a traveler does not want to encounter and this book will help avoid some of those as well as potential embarrassments that can happen when one culture encounters another.

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Excellent travel guide, although politically biased

This is probably the best Lonely Planet guide, and the best Tibetan guide ever written. I normally prefer Rough Guides, and reluctantly bought this book because Rough Guide doesn't have a Tibet guide, but it turned out to be great. It's a work of love, unlike some other guides where you can detect boredom between the lines. The authors are obviously passionate about their work, and it's amazing how they don't even miss some temples so remote that the nearest town is almost a day's drive away. The only sight I read about elsewhere but not mentioned in this book is the spooky Skull Wall in the remote Biru County, but that's unlikely to be on any foreigner's itinerary. I only wish that the book would cover more of the ethnic Tibetan areas outside the TAR, mainly Qinghai and Sichuan provinces.

Unfortunately, the authors' love for everything Tibetan often leads to a strong bias against the ethnic Chinese. They apparently bought everything produced by the exile Tibetan propaganda and perpetuate long-debunked myths such as that the Chinese army killed 1.2 million Tibetans during the invasion. They tend to associate everything bad with the Chinese, like the "Chinese" habit of spitting, even though the Tibetans spit just as much as the Chinese do, and on several occasions I saw Tibetan pilgrims urinate in the middle of the busy Barkhor circuit, which I've never seen any Chinese do during my entire stay in China. They also lament that "the importance of Chinese is an unfortunate reality in Tibet", which makes me wonder if they ever lament the importance of English in India or Hong Kong. I believe Rough Guide China's Tibet chapter offers a much more balanced view of the Sino-Tibetan relationship.

These shortcomings are just minor annoyances, and I cannot emphasize enough how helpful this book was before, during, and after my recent trip to Tibet. The places I enjoyed most are the Potala, Nam-tso (wish I had stayed overnight), and Gyantse (the dzong fort and the Kumbum). One thing I regret the most is not going to the Mount Everest base camp. When planning the trip, I worried about mountain sickness and the long drives back and forth. It turned out the drive was not that long from Shigatse, the drive itself would be quite enjoyable, and I didn't suffer much from mountain sickness at all, but it was too late to change, which brings to another major caveat: ever since the 2008 riot, all foreigners are now required to submit detailed travel plans beforehand, and it was difficult and time-consuming to change once you're in Tibet. Most annoyingly, independent travel by foreigners is no longer permitted, and foreign visitors are required to be accompanied by a guide AT ALL TIMES! Although we did sneak out of the hotel in Lhasa a few times without the guide after seeing other foreigners stroll the streets unaccompanied, but it wasn't without trepidation and not relaxing at all.

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Editorial Review :

WINNER OF THE 2009 JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL COOKBOOK AWARD

WINNER OF THE 2009 IACP BEST INTERNATIONAL COOKBOOK AWARD

A bold and eye-opening new cookbook with magnificent photos and unforgettable stories.

In the West, when we think about food in China, what usually comes to mind are the signature dishes of Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai. But beyond the urbanized eastern third of China lie the high open spaces and sacred places of Tibet, the Silk Road oases of Xinjiang, the steppelands of Inner Mongolia, and the steeply terraced hills of Yunnan and Guizhou. The peoples who live in these regions are culturally distinct, with their own history and their own unique culinary traditions. In Beyond the Great Wall, the inimitable duo of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid—who first met as young travelers in Tibet—bring home the enticing flavors of this other China.

For more than twenty-five years, both separately and together, Duguid and Alford have journeyed all over the outlying regions of China, sampling local home cooking and street food, making friends and taking lustrous photographs. Beyond the Great Wall shares the experience in a rich mosaic of recipes—from Central Asian cumin-scented kebabs and flatbreads to Tibetan stews and Mongolian hot pots—photos, and stories. A must-have for every food lover, and an inspiration for cooks and armchair travelers alike.

Customer Review :

A cookbook for your living room

Beyond the Great Wall is a gorgeous volume. I can, without hesitation, give it a 4-star rating based solely on its photography and the foodie detail that it imparts. But if you're looking for a Chinese cookbook full of answers to "What should I make tonight?" -- this isn't the book you want. Beyond the Great Wall is a great book for your living room, but in the couple of months I've had it, it hasn't found its way into the kitchen once.

The premise is marvelous: the food and culture of the "other" China, such as Tibet and Mongolia, the people who are not ethnically Chinese yet are part of the country's food heritage. Authors Alford and Duguid have traveled around these regions for decades, and the depth of their knowledge shines. The essays are outstanding. They tell wonderful stories about bus rides, about shopping in food markets, about the history of ingredients. The photography of these areas makes me want to book a trip to China immediately, and the food pictures are mouthwatering.

But for recipes... these dishes obviously are authentic, but they don't thrill me. I haven't seen a single recipe that makes me say, "Wow, honey, let's make THAT for dinner!" Nothing here is a turnoff, and recipes like "chicken pulao with pumpkin" or "dai grilled fish" (something perch-like with a filling of scallions, cilantro, and red chili flakes) sound pretty good. Maybe I'll eventually try a few. But I'm happier looking at the photos; nothing makes me reach for my grocery list to ensure I buy all the ingredients. Moreover, the book isn't printed in such a way that I want to cook from it; the font size is small, and it'd be hard to glance at the instructions in the middle of a big wok-stirring session.

Please don't let that dissuade you from buying the book. I just want you to buy it for the right purposes: armchair travel for foodies, where the recipes illustrate the text rather than dominate it. If you know someone who loves food, this would be an awesome holiday present.

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As a gift this was a huge success

My son and daughter-in-law especially love Mongolia, and have traveled extensively in that country. They especially enjoy relationships with tribal people there and experiencing what ordinary people eat. So I ordered this as a Christmas gift for them and they absolutely loved it. I also scanned as much of the book as I had time for myself, and found the cultural stories relating to the recipes as fascinating as the descriptions of foods. It is truly a lovely book, either for 'foodies' or for amatuer cultural anthropologists.

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Typical Canadian hypocrisy

Aside from some pretty pictures, painstakingly taken by the authors, this so-called cookbook is just a pile of hypocritical ignorance.

Since this is supposed to be a cookbook, I shall begin with the recipes. The authors was under the assumption that these recipes are very special and exotic, and Chinese censorship was the only reason they did not reach international prominence. This view is simply quite ignorant. As I flipped through the book I kept nodding my head and said to myself, "yup, I have seen this before." So somehow these foods (or people) must have managed to escape the thumb of Chinese oppression.

But, in the mean time, there is something fishy about these recipes presented within. I was not aware that the Chinese and the Mexicans have been exchanging knowledge in salsa making, nor was I aware of any fish recipes in the mountainous regions of Tibet, or in the deserts of Xianxiang. Reading through their experience with "the other Chinese food", I couldn't help but to think that they just made up a lot of these supposedly exotic recipes, using whatever was available in their fridge at the moment.

Now I shall move on to the other part. It is now very fashionable, in the current political climate, for us to perceive China as the big evil Socialist machine, in the same way we saw the USSR in the Cold War. True, many of these ethnic minorities in China featured in this book do not share the economic prosperity that the rest of the country has enjoyed over the last two decades. True, clashes take place (a la Rodney King) between the Han majority and the minorities. The authors, in their moral high-horse, often referred these problems as "ethnic representation" or "oppression", without having much understanding of the issues. To add insult to injury, they seem oblivious to their own ethnic problems (e.g., the Indians and the immigrants) back in Canada.

To be quite honest, my problem with this book is not so much their "anti-mainstream-Chinese" sentiment; it is their opinion, and I cannot change it. I simply think they are shameless and opportunistic, in that they used their mere capacity as travelers and self-proclaimed food writers to assert their naive political views against China in a book that is meant to be a cookbook of "fringe" Chinese cuisine, while comfortably profiting off both sides. Lest we forget, this book was released only a few months before the Beijing Olympics, at a whooping cost of $70 apiece. If hypocrisy does not describe the spirit of this book, I don't know what will.

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Incredible find!

What a great book! The photos are wonderful and the recipes make me want to start trying them out right away. I am so glad I got this book.

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This book fills a huge gap in Asian cooking.

I really like this book. An impressive quality product. Very interesting, unique and usable recipes from parts of the world unknown to most people. I have cooked a few and am very happy with them. I suspect they are a little dumbed down to suit the western palate but easily adjusted if one likes a bit more spice and authentic flavours. As for the politics, I don't like mixing politics with food but the authors give us a feel for the identity of these otherwise forgotten peoples who are swallowed up by the enormity of China. I am a political realist and I believe Tibet will never be an independent nation again but support any effort to maintain identity and culture for all minorities wherever they may be. But I would not go as far to say the Hans are the bad guys. Ethnic tensions are the blight of all. I recall when in Yunnan I asked a Naxi lady who were the the people who lived and farmed high up in the mountain villages I could see from down below. She said they were Yi and added with a hint of contempt that they only ate buckwheat. Reminds me of how blacks in the USA once were called buckwheat.

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1. ISBN13: 9780060596552
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Customer Review :

An unusual journey to say the least

When I was reading the reviews of this book, I was struck by the one of the reviews. It was very negative, and the reviewer missed the beauty of this book entirely. I was glad that I had already read it. I read the reviews because I was curious to see if others had enjoyed the book as much as I did. I was buying it again as a present for a friend. The author was a very unusual person, and this book is very much worth the read. She wrote about customs and values honestly as she saw them. She was not a dispassionate viewer, but I also felt that she was not judgemental or superior. When customs of two peoples are as different as some of Tibet and France are, they will shock a person and that person will remark. However, I felt that she loved and respected the people she wrote about, and she did a remarkable job in recounting what she saw. She gave her readers the pleasure of a most unusual journey with her and her young companion through a country that was worth writing about.

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Fasinating adventure of a 55-year old woman traveling in disguise for 4 months to reach Lhasa in 1923

In 1923 at the age of 55, Alexandra David-Neel disguised herself as an old Tibetan pilgrim and traveled for four treacherous months with her young companion, Lama Yongden, all the way to Lhasa, becoming the first European woman ever to enter Lhasa. Along the way, she had to endure the primitive and often dangerous travel conditions, and the ever-present danger of being caught.

I really liked this adventure book for its honest descriptions of an earlier, purer Tibetan culture, long before the Chinese invasion. She writes honestly and candidly about the customs and values of the people she meets, neither romanticizing nor criticizing.

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A history of Tibet that no longer exists, we all owe David-Neel a debt

Personally, I love this book and have read it more than three times. If, for no other reason, you have an interest in Tibet prior to the Chinese invasion in 1950, this book leaves for posterity a Tibet that no longer exists. The border is gone from modern maps, but even a Westerners' interpretation of their daily lives, is treasure to us all of what once was, a free and spiritually ruled Tibet.

The Chinese have a built a "Disneyland" at the foot of Potalla Palace. I need to remember it before the modern attempt at Chinesification of Tibet.

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The Pilgrim was a Lady

In 1923 at the age of 55, Alexandra David-Neel put on the robes of a Buddhist monk and walked across Tibet for four months on a pilgrimmage to the holy city of Lhasa. No European woman had ever entered the holy city before, and the road promised many dangers, from wild animals to blizzards to bandits. Her descriptions bear witness to a spunky evolved soul whose scholarly knowledge of Buddhism served her well in her adopted role as an itinerant monk. Her writing is elegant, punctuated by an unselfconscious humor and relentless perspicacity. Truly an adventure trek of many wonders.

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Extraordinary account, incredible woman!

Every warm-blooded traveler knows that to savor a journey, to experience a journey, one has to become the journey. Of course, that same traveler will also tell you that typically that also means parking one's notions of comfort at home in exchange for rewards that happily outstrip bodily discomfiture, because places of intense emotion reveal themselves only to the hardy and the intrepid.

But this story chronicles a veritable traveler boot camp! To bed down on rocks, sleep on snow, go hungry, thirsty and unclean, travel by starlight, dangle from a rope over a gorge, beg for food, awaken to the snuffle of wild predators... all this by a woman, almost a 100 years ago, 55 years old and on the run. I thrill and shudder at once and envy her the journey sometimes (and not so much at other times!).

I recently had a tantalizing taste of Tibet's fantasmagoric beauty - like that of a land spellbound by unscrupulous sorcery, where life is harsh, unforgiving, unbending but so endowed by natural splendor that one is unable to escape its thrall. As her adventure unfolds in this well-paced account, I could imagine her tramping through these fabled lands, forging through fog-filled valleys, melting into the moonshine or greeting a golden sunrise at the end of a hard night's trek. I regret that she doesn't pause to paint a fuller picture of what must have been spectacular scenery.

It is also interesting to sketch her personality through her own pen. The portrait that emerges is that of a strong-willed, intelligent, somewhat arrogant woman of unwavering determination, gritty endurance and one who loves a challenge. I have to applaud her unconditionally for the original motivation that launched her on this endeavor. She would have made a great CEO in our times.

Yes, the style is a little dated, as one reviewer commented, but why should that be surprising? This is a period piece. I find her use of Tibetan words occasionally distracting and the Introduction by Diana Rowan is downright hagiographic and entirely dispensable, or at least, deferrable until the end of the author's own story.

If you are a traveler at heart this travelogue cannot fail to touch you.


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1. ISBN13: 9780143036029
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Editorial Review :

The Heart of the World recounts an extraordinary journey into one of the most inaccessible places on earth, and a pilgrimage to the heart of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan prophecies proclaim that the greatest of beyul, or mystical sanctuaries, lies at the eastern edge of the Himalayas, veiled by a colossal waterfall in the forbidding Tsangpo gorge. After years of investigation, world-class climber and Buddhist scholar Ian Baker and his National Geographic–sponsored team made worldwide news by finding a magnificent 108-foot-high waterfall—the legendary grail of both Western explorers and Tibetan pilgrims.

Customer Review :

gold in the library

i stumbled across this book in the library and, first chapter in, i could not believe my good fortune! i have not been so enthused about a book in a long, long time. i NEVER read during the day, unless i am sick or travelling, but i found myself picking up Heart of the World every chance i got, be it 9 am or 9 pm. i practically wore out the binding, flipping from the text to the maps or the glossary or the index. it was total emersion and enrapture for me. now that i have read the book for free, i am going to buy a copy.
i am not one of those long-winded raters who can wax poetic for paragraph after paragraph, so i will end this review w/ these words: get your hands on this book and read it!!

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Fascinating adventure story to explore the Yarlung Tsangpo gorges, the world's deepest, and see if a fabled watefall exists

This book chronicles the author's determined quest over many years to explore the Yarlung Tsangpo gorges, the world's deepest, and see if a fabled waterfall exists or not. He made news worldwide in 1998 when he penetrated the hidden gorges and found that yes, there is a 108-foot-high waterfall.

Baker introduces the Tibetan Buddhist concept of a beyul, or hidden lands, sacred sanctuaries that reveal themselves to devout pilgrims. The build up over many attempts is frightening as he encounters sheer cliffs, maelstroms of impassable white water, and dense leech-infested jungles. His black and white photos bring many of the passages to life.

"It was like the meeting of two distinct worlds--the world of Tibetan Buddhism and the Victorian era of Western exploration." - Ian Baker.

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A Wealth of Adventure and Dharma

My copy, an apparently earlier edition, has the subtitle of 'A Journey to the Last Secret Place' and I was going to entitle this review 'A Journey to the Doorway to the Last Secret Place' but I see that this newer edition has the subtitle of 'A Journey to Tibet's Lost Paradise' and that is in the end a better and truer title. I loved this book but knew it wasn't going to end with a visit to any fabled city of Shangri-La or anything out of a Hollywood movie. Still, my one qualm had been that the journey stopped short of reaching the previous edition's ambitious subtitle. The impressive and wondrously spiritual journey stops right at the very secret door to the tunnel to the secret sacred paradise. Now surely it is clear that if such a place should truly exist, its doorway would not in fact be the last secret place! Oh well, while I would have loved for Ian Baker to have built a bridge and scaled the wall and by some miraculous means made his way over the door and either proven it was nothing more than a hole in the rock or that it does indeed lead to a mythic paradise beyond all earthly measure, I still thoroughly enjoyed the book. But I know, really the journey itself is the tunnel and the portal is the mirror which makes the journey from this sacred place truly a new journey of exploration in this new paradise, which to us lesser folk is just our base world invisibly transformed. But that doesn't solve the conundrum with the subtitle either because then the last secret place is everywhere the author goes after the book is ended! But anyway, my qualm is solved by the new subtitle, so never mind. Highly recommended for the spiritual adventurist who perhaps just became a dad and can't be running off to Tibet to see things for himself. For those who want less adventure and more dharma, read Buddhism with and Attitude by B. Alan Wallace.

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Riveting! Couldn't put the book down.

I picked up the book not really knowing what to expect. I am going to visit Tibet in October and wanted to read something that would acquaint me with the spiritual aspects of Tibetan Buddhism. It's a long read, but, I really enjoyed it. As I travel down the road of my own spiritual process, Ian Baker has reminded me of what my personal "search" is really about. This book is probably not for everyone, but, if you are a "seeker," it will speak to you. Although, the physical adventure is riveting, I think the spiritual quest that this represents is the real message. Enjoy.

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Excellent!

And you thought Shambala didn't exist! This was a great, real-life, modern-day adventure story! The book is entertaining on several levels; Ian reveals much of the enigmatic history and culture of Tibetan Buddhism, gives a great overview of the late 19th century search for the fabled falls of the Tsangpo river, and his personal account of several expeditions to find those same falls in the late 20th century. He presents his quest in both physical and spiritual contexts with an entertaining and sincere style. It's remarkable that there was still such a hard-to-reach, virtually untouched segment of the world left to be explored at the end of the 20th century! Excellent book!

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1. ISBN13: 9780861713370
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Editorial Review :

Customer Review :

Fine, but not a keeper

This book is the same book as Swallowing The River Ganges only with a new chapter at the end. Both books are fine books for learning meditation, particularly Buddhist Vipassana (Insight) meditation. Not one of my favorites, and not a keeper, but a fine book, nonetheless.


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Inspiring meditation guide!

I just finished this book, and wow, it was fabulous. What I liked in this book apart from other books I've read on meditation is the focus on how we can use meditation to see things as they really are, to see impermanence, to see how the mind and consciousness create an illusion of a self, and how to eventually get past that and to enlightenment. This book also addresses the fears we face, the apprehensions we experience as reality is revealed. I found this especially helpful, as I am facing some of those fears myself. Lastly, the author gives wonderful descriptions of how enlightened beings view the world and live out the rest of their lives. This book is small, but it's a must read! I've ordered the author's meditation workbook Journey to the Center, and am looking forward to using it. Though, I don't believe you need the latter. There are several chapters in this book that give really great step by step instruction for insight meditation. This is a book I will reread several times.

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