My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City
by Alexandra David-neel
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alexandra David-neelEdition: Paperback
Published: 2005-09-01
ISBN: 0060596554
Number of pages: 376
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City
Book Review: Extraordinary account, incredible woman!
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Summary of My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City
In any time, Alexandra David-Neel would have been considered an extraordinary woman, but in the Victorian era, she was truly exceptional. Born in 1868, David-Neel eschewed the dances, dinners, and formal marriages common to women of her era and social standing in order to indulge her fierce independence and insatiable intellectual curiosity. Her interest in comparative religions dated back to early childhood; even as a student in a Catholic convent school, she kept statues of both Christ and the Buddha in her room. She made her first trip to Asia in 1891, then supported herself as a light-opera singer and journalist before marrying a seemingly conventional man, Philip Neel. Fortunately for both Alexandra David-Neel and for posterity, Philip was less stodgy than his position as a well-off engineer might imply; though he did not accompany her, he supported his wife's explorations and even acted as her literary agent when she began to write about the places she visited. Alexandra and Philip remained the closest of friends until his death in 1941.David-Neel spent years traveling in India and China, but perhaps her most daring adventure was the trip to Tibet's forbidden city of Lhasa. She was 55 years old at the time, fluent in Tibetan and well versed in both Sanskrit and Buddhism. Disguised as a man, she spent four treacherous months on the road before finally becoming the first European woman ever to enter Lhasa. My Journey to Lhasa is David-Neel's own account of her astounding journey, one fraught with hardship and danger. It is both a chronicle of a bygone time and a testimonial to a remarkable human.
An exemplary travelogue of danger and achievement by the Frenchwoman Madame Alexandra David–Neel of her 1923 expedition to Tibet, the fifth in her series of Asian travels, and her personal recounting of her journey to Lhasa, Tibet's forbidden city.
In order to penetrate Tibet and reach Lhasa, she used her fluency of Tibetan dialects and culture, disguised herself as a beggar with yak hair extensions and inked skin and tackled some of the roughest terrain and climate in the World. With the help of her young companion, Yongden, she willingly suffered the primitive travel conditions, frequent outbreaks of disease, the ever–present danger of border control and the military to reach her goal.
The determination and sheer physical fortitude it took for this woman, delicately reared in Paris and Brussels, is inspiration for men and women alike.
David–Neel is famous for being the first Western woman to have been received by any Dalai Lama and as a passionate scholar and explorer of Asia, hers is one of the most remarkable of all travellersߴales.
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