Product Description

In this remarkable, and ultimately tragic narrative, Peter Hopkirk recounts the forcible opening up of this medieval land during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the extraordinary race between agents, soldiers, missionaries, mountaineers, explorers, and mystics from nine different countries to reach Lhasa, Tibet's sacred capital.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #480762 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 284 pages

About the Author
Peter Hopkirk has travelled widely over many years in the regions where his six books are set - Central Asia, the Caucasus, China, India and Pakistan, Iran, and Eastern Turkey. Before turning full-time author, he was an ITN reporter and newscaster for two years, the New York correspondent of the Daily Express, and worked for nearly twenty years on The Times: five as its chief reporter, and latterly as a Middle and Far East specialist. In the 1950s he edited the West
African news magazine Drum, sister-paper to its legendary South African namesake. Before entering Fleet Street he served as a subaltern in the King's African Rifles - in the same battalion as lance-corporal Idi AMin, later to emerge as the Ugandan tyrant. No stranger to misadventure, Hopkirk has twice beeen held in secret police cells - in Cuba and the Middle East - and has also been hijacked by Arab terrorists. His works have been translated into thirteen languages.

Customer Reviews

A superb account of the race for Lhasa
This is a cracking account by Peter Hopkirk of the Western race for Lhasa in the 19th & early 20th centuries.

Some of the other customer reviews have been luke-warm about the book, but in its defence it is not a book about Tibet, Tibetans or religion - it is exactly what it claims to be, i.e. a series of fascinating stories of western adventurers (plus one Japanese!) told to different levels of detail depending on the merits and information available of each adventurer's journey.

I have to say that I am a big Peter Hopkirk fan so I must disclose my obvious bias here. However, for those that are familiar with some of his other works, I would rate this book alongside his 'The Great Game' and I found that, as a read, it flowed even better than his (very good) works 'Setting the East Ablaze' and 'On Secret Service East of Constantinople'.

from Loftus Road to Lhasa
The book was both of the reviews above, it was a one sided account of the of the attempts to reach Lhasa.But it was was well sourced and researched and although it is now a dated text, and the author did not demonstrate any empathy or understanding of Bhuddism,I enjoyed it and it has encouraged me to read other books on the subject.

One sided
A collection of individual tales of the attempts to reach Lhasa the book moves at a good pace, reading like a 'boys own' adventure. Unfortunately Hopkirk demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of the Buddhism of Tibet and fails to reflect this in his narration. There appears to have been no effort to establish the Tibetan view of the various attempts to enter Lhasa and the depictions of the Tibetan people seem to be lifted directly from the imperialistic view of the times.

While an interesting and entertaining read I have been left with the distinct impression that there is another side to this period, which has not been addressed and in this way the value of the book is significantly diluted.