Product Description

No other land has captured man's imagination quite like Tibet. Hidden away behind the highest mountains on earth, and ruled over by a mysterious God-king, it was for centuries a land forbidden to all outsiders.

In this remarkable and ultimately tragic narrative, Peter Hopkirk recounts the forcible opening up of this medieval Buddhist kingdom by inquisitive Western travellers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the race to reach Lhasa, Tibet's sacred capital.

This epic, often harrowing tale, which ends with the Chinese invasion of 1950, draws on a colourful cast of gatecrashers from nine different countries. Among them were adventurous young officers on Great Game missions, explorers and mountaineers, mystics and missionaries. All took their lives in their hands, including three intrepid women. Some were never to return.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #74973 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review

‘A marvellous book, well researched and beautifully written – a treat for armchair explorers everywhere’

(New Statesman )

‘As vivid and gripping as a John Buchan novel’

(Evening Standard )

About the Author
Peter Hopkirk has travelled widely in the regions where his six books are set - Central Asia, the Caucasus, China, India and Pakistan, Iran, and Eastern Turkey. He has worked as an ITN reporter, the New York correspondent of the old Daily Express, and - for twenty years - on The Times. No stranger to misadventure, he has twice been held in secret police cells and has also been hijacked by Arab terrorists. His works have been translated into fourteen languages.

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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.

Brilliant as ever
Hopkirk has made Central Asia his area of authority and his books on the subject (especially The Great Game) are all superb. He tells the real stories behind such novels as George McDonald Fraser's Flashman series in a way that makes the real-life characters come alive. The subject is thrilling in a boys-own way, but the relevance of this region to modern events is in any case huge, which adds another layer of interest. This is a shortish book, and marginally not as epic as The Great Game, so gets 4*, but I would highly recommend it