Lost Lhasa

Lost Lhasa

Author:

Publisher: ABRAMS

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An account of an Austrian mountain climber's escape from a British internment camp in India during World War Two and his twenty-one-month journey through the Himalayas to safety in the Forbidden City of Lhasa in Tibet.


Lhasa

Lhasa

Author: Robert Barnett

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0231136811

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

There are many Lhasas. One is a grid of uniform boulevards lined with plush hotels, all-night bars, and blue-glass-fronted offices. Another is a warren of alleyways that surround a seventh-century temple built to pin down a supine demoness. A web of Stalinist, rectangular blocks houses the new nomenklatura. Crumbling mansions, once home to noble ministers, famous lovers, nationalist spies, and covert revolutionaries, now serve as shopping malls and faux-antique hotels. Each embodiment of the city partakes of the others' memories, whispered across time and along the city streets. In this imaginative new work, Robert Barnett offers a powerful and lyrical exploration of a city long idealized, disregarded, or misunderstood by outsiders. Looking to its streets and stone, Robert Barnett presents a searching and unforgettable portrait of Lhasa, its history, and its illegibility. His book not only offers itself as a manual for thinking about contemporary Tibet but also questions our ways of thinking about foreign places. Barnett juxtaposes contemporary accounts of Tibet, architectural observations, and descriptions by foreign observers to describe Lhasa and its current status as both an ancient city and a modern Chinese provincial capital. His narrative reveals how historical layering, popular memory, symbolism, and mythology constitute the story of a city. Besides the ancient Buddhist temples and former picnic gardens of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa describes the urban sprawl, the harsh rectangular structures, and the geometric blue-glass tower blocks that speak of the anxieties of successive regimes intent upon improving on the past. In Barnett's excavation of the city's past, the buildings and the city streets, interwoven with his own recollections of unrest and resistance, recount the story of Tibet's complex transition from tradition to modernity and its painful history of foreign encounters and political experiment.


Tibet: The Lost Frontier

Tibet: The Lost Frontier

Author: Claude Arpi

Publisher: Lancer Publishers LLC

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 1935501496

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Delving deep into the history of the Roof of the World, this book introduces us to one of the greatest tragedies of modern times, its principal characters as well as the forces impelling them, consciously or unconsciously. The main ‘knot’ of our ‘drama’ was staged in 1950. During this ‘fateful’ year the dice of fate was thrown. There are turning points in history when it is possible for events to go one way or the other — when the tides of time seem poised between the flood and the ebb, when fate awaits our choice to strike its glorious or sombre note, and the destiny of an entire nation hangs in balance. The year 1950 was certainly one such crucial year in the destinies of India, Tibet and China. The three nations had the choice of moving towards peace and collaboration, or tension and confrontation. Decisions can be made with all good intentions — as in the case of Nehru who believed in an ‘eternal friendship’ with China, or with uncharitable motives of Mao. Decisions can be made out of weakness, greed, pragmatism, ignorance or fear; but once an option is excercised, consequences unfold for years and decades to follow. In strategic terms, Tibet is critical to South Asia and South-east Asia. Rather the Tibetan plateau holds the key to the peace, security and well being of Asia, and the world as such. This study of the history of Tibet, a nation sandwiched between two giant neighbours, will enable better understanding of the geopolitics influencing the tumultuous relations between India and China, particularly in the backdrop of border disputes and recent events in Tibet.


The Traditional Lhasa House

The Traditional Lhasa House

Author: André Alexander

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 3643902034

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book looks at a particular type of indigenous architecture that has developed in the city of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The focus is on the vernacular residential architecture in the form of the historic Lhasa Town House, as it was built and lived in from the mid-17th to mid-20th century. The book defines the Lhasa House as a distinct variety of traditional Tibetan architecture by providing a technical analysis and discussing the cultural framework and the development of a typology. (Series: HABITAT - INTERNATIONAL: Articles on International Urban Development / Schriften zur internationalen Stadtentwicklung - Vol. 18)


Lost in Tibet

Lost in Tibet

Author: Richard Starks

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2012-09-04

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0762789301

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Caught in a violent storm and blown far off their intended course, five American airmen--flying the dangerous Himalayan supply route known as "The Hump"--were forced to bail out just seconds before their plane ran out of fuel. To their astonishment, they found they had landed in the heart of Tibet. There they had to confront what, to them, seemed a bizarre--even alien--people. At the same time, they had to extricate themselves from the political turmoil that even then was raging around Tibet's right to be independent from China. Now back in print, Lost in Tibet is an extraordinary story of high adventure that sheds light on the remarkable Tibetan people, just at the moment when they were coming to terms with a hostile outside world.


The Lhasa Atlas

The Lhasa Atlas

Author: Knud Larsen

Publisher: Serindia Publications, Inc.

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 0906026571

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Lhasa, the ancient capital of Tibet, is the most impressive of the few surviving traditional towns. This guide presents its unique architecture and building culture, topography, environment, historical development and townscape, as well as introducing future plans and issues concerning the safeguarding of Lhasa in the face of urban development.


Kundun

Kundun

Author: Mary Craig

Publisher: Catapult

Published: 1998-09-02

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 1887178910

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Here is the story of Tibet as told by its remarkable first family--a story of reincarnation, coronation, heartbreaking exile, and finally the tenacious efforts of a holy man to save a nation and its people. Kundun is the first work to focus on the Dalai Lama's family--his parents, four brothers, and two sisters. Particularly compelling are Mary Craigs portraits of the Dalai Lamas siblings, who have negotiated with China on behalf of their country, enlisted the aid of international allies to spearhead Tibetan Resistance, and worked tirelessly to help thousands of sick and starving refugee children. This remarkable book opens in 1933 with the death of the thirteenth Dalai Lama and the frantic effort among Tibetan authorities to find his reincarnation. In their search for a baby boy displaying the characteristic marks of a Dalai Lama--tiger striped legs, wide eyes, large ears, and palms bearing the pattern of a sea shell--officials were led to a tiny village in northeastern Tibet, home of Lhamo Dhondup, a smart, stubborn toddler already known for his tantrums. Responding calmly when a group of high lamas and dignitaries tested his memory of a previous life, the child easily recognized a rosary, walking stick, and drum belonging to the thirteenth Dalai Lama. In an instant this little boy and his entire family were swept into a world of unending ritual and complex internal politics. Lhamo was installed as the fourteenth Dalai Lama at the age of three, and was known from that point on as His Holiness or Kundun (the Presence), titles even his family members were obliged to use. A few years later the young Dalai Lama and his family were faced with China's invasion of Tibet. Living in exile since the late 1950s, they have waged a decades-long struggle for the freedom of their country. Particularly compelling are Craig's portraits of the Dalai Lama's siblings, who have negotiated with China on behalf of their country, enlisted the aid of international allies to spearhead Tibetan Resistance, and worked tirelessly to help thousands of sick and starving refugee children.


Postcards from the Ledge

Postcards from the Ledge

Author: Greg Child

Publisher: The Mountaineers Books

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 159485355X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

* Reflections and humorous pieces, plus insights into some of mountaineering's more controversial events * Revealing portraits of other Himalayan climbers Peeling back the layers to reveal the gritty truth about the elite climbing world is Greg Child's specialty. With clever wit, sharp observations, and insightful reflections, Child's writing covers the full spectrum of the mountaineering experience. Entertaining even to those who have never been above sea level, Child's stories reveal climbing's other face. His description of the daily habits of mountaineers on expedition (who don't bathe for months) is both disgusting and horrifyingly funny. A post-climb fiasco in the offices of petty Pakistani bureaucrats proves that not all epics take place on high mountain faces. Falling of a rock climb in front of his mother is an exercise in humility. Child takes up climbing controversy with the same keen insight. His investigation of Tomo Cesen's claimed first ascent of Lhotse's south wall is considered the definitive report on this controversial event. A hard look at the media frenzy around the death of Alison Hargreaves on K2 evolves into a brilliant, impassioned defense of a friend. He also speaks out on the money- and media-driven expeditions that now crowd Everest. But Child never preaches. Whether contrasting his clumsy performance with Lynn Hill's elegant moves on a climb in the remote mountains of Kyrgyzstan or reflecting upon artifacts (from crucifixes to pink flamingos) that decorate the world's highest peaks, he writes it as he sees it, with a dose of wit. A true insider, Greg Child draws us deep into the world of climbing but never denies its dark side.


Lost Continents & the Hollow Earth

Lost Continents & the Hollow Earth

Author: David Hatcher Childress

Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 9780932813633

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book is Childress' thorough examination of the early hollow earth stories of Richard Shaver, and the fascination that fringe fantasy subjects such as lost continents, UFOs, and the hollow earth have had on people. Shaver's rare 1948 book, I Remember Lemuria is reprinted in its entirety, and the book is packed with illustrations from Ray Palmer's Amazing Stories issues of the 1940s. Childress discusses famous hollow earth books and delves deep into whatever reality may be behind the stories of tunnels underground.


Dog Days

Dog Days

Author: John Baudhuin

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2007-05-08

Total Pages: 101

ISBN-13: 1462839258

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Dog Days is a series of dog stories, vignettes told to or observed by the author over many years. Comments and spiritual truths are provided by The Spaniel, a most unusual dog who was given a prophetic gift during the third year of President George w. Bush, then also a spaniel owner. This book serves as a useful way of looking at everyday events, and some parents have used it for bed time stories with their children.