well, not quite a needle....actually a national park in Nepal, but the tracking of the largest Asian elephant ( 11 feet at the shoulder, 22 " foot diameter ) in order to document its existence, and in so doing hopefully ensure its safety by giving it a 'national identity' did not prove an easy task ! An excellent read .. couldn't put the book down !

It keeps you interested throughout the entire book. It feels like you are right there with her. It is a good book for any cat lover.

This book, based on collaborative work with Muktunda Raj Aryal, offers a rare insight into the symbolic mean of the Nepalese pagoda. Additionally, the author provides convincing evidence that the temple of Changu Narayan is the site of the oldest Asian pagoda. Appendix of inscriptions helpful to the scholar. Text accessible to the non-scholar.

In 1965 Irish born traveller Dervla Murphy sets off to Nepal to work as a volunteer with the Tibetan refugees. Having previously worked in Dharamsala, India with the newly exiled community, which had by this time found it's feet & in her opinion was no longer in need of another Western volunteer, Dervla's interest now lay in neighbouring Nepal which was still struggling with the influx of refugees.

Written in the form of a diary, Murphy recounts the months that she spent in the 'waiting land'. Sharing her lodgings with rats & an extensive range of insects, her no nonsense attitude & the equanimity with which she views each situation makes interesting reading. Even Miss Murphy cannot understand why the Tibetans made such a fuss over 'a few leeches' whilst trekking. Many westerners would find her experiences unacceptable, especially waiting days for a delayed flight & the hilarious but potentially dangerous airport at Pokhora where children play, animals graze & dogs fight on the runway until an aeroplane approaches & a whistle is blown to clear the way. As of yet, she declares that miraculously there has been no fatalities.

Although Miss Murphy believes that the Tibetans are probably one of the dirtiest races, her admiration for their spirit, wonderful humour & compassion shines through. After a heavy monsoon, the refugee camp was completely flooded. The scene, she said could have been extrememly depressing, except that the Tibetans thought it was the funniest thing that had ever happened to them.

A brilliant insight into Nepal, the Nepalese & the Tibetans.

Mr. Dalrymple writes in a easy-to-read, conversational manner. He writes knowledgeably, and often brilliantly, it seems to me, about his subject. Obviously he cares very much about human dignity, particularly when it comes to equality. It is true that those millions, in Nepal, at or near the bottom, are ready to put their life on the line...or to kill...to have some dignity. He has three books, evidently only one being available through you; but when I picked up each I couldn't put it down until I read it through. I admire his adventurous, romantic spirit. The relationship between Jim Bart and his sweetheart Lin Thorne, is fun to be around. This is true even though much of the action moves around dark places containing the threat of death, and within a society where poverty and low social position is no longer acknowledged as a situation decreed by God. Another of his books "Murder In the Highest Places" is equally thoughtful and fun...and it, too, takes place in Nepal. This is a study in the "sameness" resident in the center of us all, the murderer as well as the "good man". His third book "Meadowbrook Under Thunder and Wind" contains two parts, the first being an essay on metaphysical matters, fate, the soul, etc. and the second being a three act play which takes place in China. To the matter at hand. This book "A Wind Under Heaven" is Mr. Dalrymple's first, and it is fun to read. And...in the questions and answers it raises concerning the necessity of facing the "sameness", and giving that sameness a decent place in any society, makes me be unhesitating in giving it the "highest" rating. Thanks

Reading "Annapurna" by Arlene Blum is in many ways like standing atop a mountain and surveying the path already hard won. Written in a strident style, at times, for women's rights and tackling the seemingly insurmountable odds of fielding an all-woman team to one of the highest peaks in 1978, the book is dated. But, upon re-release in the 20th anniversary edition, it should be seen within the context of its times. And, yes, women have climbed mountains in that time. Yes, there no longer is the need to "prove" a woman's worth. And, yes, a woman's place is on top! as their mountaineering slogan ran, but with the 1990s, into the 21st century proviso today: Or, anywhere else she chooses. "Annapurna" is perfectly timed in its re-release with the hit "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer being such a hit and with its rebuttal, "The Climb" by the late Anatoli Boukreev. All three should be read for a better understanding of the strains and accomplishments of mere mortals -- male and female -- climbing their own personal mountains.

One of the best books ever written about women's climbing. The author, Arlene Blum, the group leader, has written a wonderful book about the first Americans, and the first women, to climb Annapurna. They were also the first women to climb to 8,000 meters. In 1978, this international group, from America, England, and Poland, set out to climb one of the highest mountains in the world. They helped to finance their expedition by selling 15,000 t-shirts printed with an outline of the peak, and the motto, "A Woman's Place Is On Top." Contrary to some recent highly publicized climbs in the Himalayas, led by professional guides for substantial fees from inexperienced climbers, all ten climbing members were capable climbers who led some routes, carried full packs, and entertained dreams of summiting without Sherpa support. Arlene Blum, a professor at Berkeley, was chosen as the group leader, and she tells of the struggle to raise money and organize members and e! ! quipment. Once in Nepal, she had to deal with conflicts in the group, and with Sherpas who were dubious of women's ability to climb high. One center of conflict was the desire of some members to climb for the summit without Sherpa support. Blum, ever concerned with safety, prevailed, and Sherpas supported the summit effort. (Hillary, after all, had Tenzing Norgay.) A thrilling story, and thrilling photographs. A video of the expedition exists somewhere. A must read for any one interested in Himalayan climbing.

This new release of a 20yo book is a winner. I still have my tattered T-shirt proclaiming women should be "on top," that I bought in Berkeley way back then, in support of Blum's fundraising for her 1978 all-woman assault on Annapurna. By proving to the skeptical small mountain-climbing community of men, as well as to the world at large, that women COULD be leaders of expeditions into the high Himilayas, Blum opened the door to a new vision of women's abilities in sports as well as all other areas of life.

This collection of short stories explores the nature of desire and attraction in a changing society avoiding the excesses of many writers in this area. The stories are well-written and the characters are memorable. I look forward to reading his novel, and I highly recommend this collection.

really enjoyed this slim volume of short stories and can't wait to read his first novel. A gifted writer in the tradition of Rohinton Mistry and all the other wonderful and talented Indian writers --and now I have been somewhat exposed to Nepal's culture as well...I highly recommend this book

Having finished Samrat Upadhyay's, Arresting God in Kathmandu, I am listening to Patsy Cline and wishing his next book was already published. I was touched by Samrat Upadhyay's sensitivity and insight into a wide range of emotions from very different character perspectives. I read in an editorial review that if one is wanting an excursion into spirituality that they will be dissapointed. Not so. Samrat Upadhyay captures the true spirituality of everyday suffering and joy without forcing it on the reader. I look forward to Guru of Love in January.

This book is not just for those interested in mountain climbing. It is a well-written, beautifully photographed, reverent accounting of the 1999 expedition to find any evidence of George Mallory's (probable) summit in 1924, along with a concurrent account, through old photographs, journal entries, and interviews, of Mallory's 1924 expedition. The author's possible scenarios on what happened during that fateful trip from which Mallory and Irvine never returned make sense, supported by the fact that these theories were offered by expert mountain-climbers. Did they solve the mystery? I think so...read it, and make your own decision! Perhaps Sir Edmund Hillary wasn't the first man to summit Everest (in 1953) after all...

I thought it had all been said about this expedition and Everest in general until I read this book. The accounts published by the authors in magazines such as National Geographic, and Outside are good but pale in comparison to the quality of the presentation of this book. The photos of the primitive equipment Mallory, Irvine and their colleagues used almost 100 years ago tell a compelling story. I cannot imagine achieving the heights they achieved with the hobnail boots. I had never seen a pair up close. The photos of the mountain from each expedition are remarkable and unique. This book is more than just a climbing tale. The author does a superb job of portraying the people on the 1924 and 1999 expeditions, and the cultures in which they immersed themselves. Mountaineers Books also did an outstanding job of producing the best quality Everest book I have seen to date. It is beautifully designed and executed. It is one of those rare books that I hated to finish and will no doubt refer to and savor again. You will want a quality hardback copy for your library or coffee table.

Hemmleb, Johnson and Simonson collaborate to give the reader an immensely engaging and objective account of the 1999 expedition to Everest to discover the fate of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. The superb illustrations, photography and documentation are outstanding complements to inticing mystery surrounding Mallory and Irvine's disappearance. (For those who find the typeset too close to the gutter, enjoy the story and get a life!)

The book eloquently juxtapositions the story of the 1924 British expedition with that of the 1999 team's. There is no sensationalism here. The 1999 team's sense of history and respect is profound as it discovers, documents and dedicates the remains of the great British mountaineer before making its own summit attempt.

As you climb higher on the mountain you feel the cold, the shortness of breath, the precipitous heights and personally drawn closer to the seventy year old mystery. I especially enjoyed the authors' objectivity. Pre-expedition knowledge and research is clearly presented. Evidence is placed in perspective to both 1924 and 1999 capabilities and experience. Why should you read this book? Because it takes you there!

This is the first guidebook to include the whole Tibetan world. Roughly one third of the main body of the book is devoted to the Tibetan "Autonomous" Region, one third to other Tibetan lands governed by China, and one third to Bhutan and the Tibetan areas of Nepal and India.

It is an intensely practical book, directed to the independent traveller using public transport. It includes information about public transport which is readily available nowhere else; it does not include the telephone numbers of bus stations - an unfortunate omission.

The many excellent maps include regional maps, and no less than 126 maps of towns, many of them mapped in no other available book.

Important improvements would be: the inclusion of Chinese characters where appropriate in the text; the addition of markers to every Chinese word or name wherever it appears to indicate the tones, without which they cannot be pronounced; and a guide to the pronunciation of Tibetan, without which the section Survival Tibetan is scarcely useful.

Some travellers will want more information about the furnishings and images in Tibetan temples. In most of the territory covered, although not for India, Gyurme Dorje's "Tibet Handbook with Bhutan" (Footprint Handbooks) will provide that information, and be a complementary companion book.

The book will be indispensable for the serious traveller who wishes to understand the extent and the diversity of the Tibetan world.

This book is a must for travellers, it has easily the best set of maps to Tibet that I have ever seen and they are really easy to follow. The travel information is also very detailed, especially when it comes to the local public transport timetables and routes. I am also impressed that it covers in detail all the Tibetan areas in the Chinese controlled areas and beyond and not just around Lhasa.

Mapping the Tibetan World is the portable encyclopedia of the Tibetan world i was waiting for !
I have now this wonderful little book always close to me so that i can read a bit here and a bit there whenever i have five minutes to spare.
It has informations on all aspects of Tibetan life, culture, history and geography as well as Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and symbols.
The many maps included makes it easy to plan your trip in Tibet and other Tibetan cultural regions.
The only suggestions i could make to the publisher would be a LARGE PRINT version for people who like me have bad eyesight, and may be a color coding to distinguish the various regions (chapters).
A wonderful job done by this team of young explorers, many thanks to them !

The book Annapurna deals with the first expedition of climbing a mountain over 8000 meters. Leader of this expedition is the writer himself Maurice Herzog.

The ending of the2nd world war has made it more easily to pass the limits and make it possible to climb the highest mountains on earth. And because of that Herzog gets an idea of starting an expedition that will make him the first mountaineer that has climbed a mountain over 8000 meters. He starts to collect people who have enough knowledge of mountaineering and enough strength. It becomes a team that consisting of Herzog, Lachenal, Rébuffat and Terray.

In the beginning of the year 1950 they travel to the Himalayans to find a mountain, which is just above 8000 meter. They decide to climb either Dhaulagiri or Annapurna who lie quite near each other.

The problem for Herzog and his team is that they only have some old maps from the Indians, who are not especially correct. So they have to do a lot of reconnaissance's to find a climbable way to the peak. Their first mission is to try to become the first climbers of the mountain Dhaulagiri. But after much recognizing Herzog and his French mountaineers decide to reconnaissance the mountain Annapurna to see if it's possible to make an assault1 on that mountain instead. After a detailed reconnaissance they decide to make an attempt. A long and detailed continuation gets started and the assault is quite remarkable and so is the descent.

Herzog's way of writing about his relationship to his "team-mates" and his descriptions of the landscape makes is interesting to read the book.

I got quite stuck to this book when Herzog started to tell about the assault. But earlier in the book, when he described the reconnaissance it was very tedious.

Many readers have criticized this book because they think Herzog takes most of the honour, and describes himself as the "hero". They also say that Herzog only financiered the expedition, and by that way became the leader of the expedition. And that he was travelling with the team just like a tourist and a photographer. Rébuffat and Lachenal both criticizes Herzog for taking the honour and write about their thoughts of the expedition in their autobiographies.

If you like adventure stories as I do, I think you should give this book a shot

I read this book and passed it on some months ago, so while I have had time to digest its overall impact, I have forgotten specific details I could cite. In particular I wish I could quote Herzog's poetic summit musings. This must be left to be rediscovered...what has stayed with me the most is how likeable M. Herzog is. His humorously low-key impressions of avalanche and other disasters seems genuine and is winning. For me this was proven by how I was moved to tears at his account of ghastly frostbite treatments (arterial injections!) and his painful, dreamlike trek out of the Annapurna region. The only flaw of the book worth mention (aside from the mediocre quality of the maps in the edition I had) is that the initial reconnaissance of the expedition in the Dhaulagiri - Annapurna area, and the other preparatory phases of the mission are dull and tend to stall the reading pace. However, once the climbing was on in earnest I was caught! This book definitely belongs in any serious personal library of mountaineering classics.

This is perhaps the most famous and long lasting book in mountaineering. The account of how Herzog and Lachenal reached Annapurna's summit is the culmination of a long and difficult journey in which the team gets lost and found dozens of times.

I found most interesting to be the differences between an expedition in the 90s (such as described in Into Thin Air) and Herzog's expedition; it is hard to understand how they could ahve made it without the modern equipment, however they did pay the price through amputated limbs.

This is a mountaineering classic, perhaps the best one, despite the recent questions as to the veracity of the team dynamics described by Herzog. Herzog describes a team of selfless members that were working towards one common goal, to get one of them on the summit. Question have arisen on whether such dynamics were not exaggerated. Either way, it si a wonderful book to read, as Herzog takes us on a ride all the way to the summit and back. Highly recommended for the armchair mountaineer.