[URJ]≡ PDF My Journey to Lhasa The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City Alexandra DavidNeel 9780060596552 Books

My Journey to Lhasa The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City Alexandra DavidNeel 9780060596552 Books

Download As PDF : My Journey to Lhasa The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City Alexandra DavidNeel 9780060596552 Books

My Journey to Lhasa The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City Alexandra DavidNeel 9780060596552 Books

This book has two valuble things: It present a protrait of the old Tibet pre-chinese invasion, and shows Alexandra David Neel's personality.
Some people find the reading boring at the point of not even finish it, David Neel has serious troubles to progress with the narration, she takes too much time describing minimal trivial details of each place and situation, making the reading dull and a bit tiresome sometimes. There is also a tinge of self-conceit and egocentrism from hers, you can notice it along the narrative.
It is very interesting her hidden journey into central Tibet, one can discover the stubborn and perseverance who took David Neel to the confines of the Himalayas.


Tags : My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City [Alexandra David-Neel] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <P><b> An exemplary travelogue of danger and achievement by the Frenchwoman Madame Alexandra David&ndash;Neel of her 1923 expedition to Tibet,Alexandra David-Neel,My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City,Harper Perennial,0060596554,Asia - Central,Women's Studies,David-Neael, Alexandra - Travel - China - Lhasa,David-Neel, Alexandra - Travel - China - Lhasa,Lhasa (China) - Description and travel,Lhasa (China);Description and travel.,1868-1969,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Women,Biography Autobiography,China,David-Neel, Alexandra,,Description And Travel,Gender studies: women,Lhasa,Lhasa (China),RELIGION Buddhism Tibetan,SOCIAL SCIENCE Women's Studies,TRAVEL Asia Central,TRAVEL Asia General,Travel,Women,Religion

My Journey to Lhasa The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City Alexandra DavidNeel 9780060596552 Books Reviews

Places of intense emotion reveal themselves only to the hardy and the intrepid. Every warm-blooded traveler knows this. 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.

Tibet is of fantasmagoric beauty, like that of a land spellbound by unscrupulous sorcery - harsh and unbending but so terrifyingly beautiful that one succumbs to its thrall. 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, as her adventure unfolds in this well-paced account. 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. She appears as 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.

I found 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. Yes, the style is a little dated, as one reviewer commented, but why should that be surprising? This is a period piece.

If you are a traveler at heart this travelogue cannot fail to touch you.
I have been looking for this book for a long time. I read it in Chinese and love the book. Unfortuante, I lent the book to someone who never returned it. I have been search it on the net for a long time and finally, I found the English version of it. I was so excited. I ordered it right away and the book dropped on my door step a few days later. Thank you very much! I am reading it as a book I loved and as an English "text book" as well.
AMAZING adventure story by one of the real masters of the early 20th century. LOVE this book, and learning from it every time I re-read it.
My Journey to Lhasa is a well written book about Tibet circa 1919. Alas, the country that Alexandra David-Neel describes in her travels is no more. The Chinese have butchered and degraded the native population and ethnic Chinese are the majority of the population in the capital city of Lhasa.

David-Neel made her trek with her adopted son to the forbidden city Lhasa (where no foreigners were allowed) in the dead of winter succeeding where much younger, better equipped male-only explorers failed. This religious pilgrimage is the main highlight of this strong-willed French woman's 101 year adventure packed career. She was a noted Buddhist scholar and wrote 25 books on eastern themes after she made her death defying trip in her mid-fifties. This book reads as fresh today as when it was written over 90 years ago. Ms. David-Neel's command of the English language is better than most native speakers.

I personally didn't like the ending to her journey. Soon after she had achieved her goal of setting foot in the Forbidden City, she had no problem in identifying herself as a French woman and allowing herself the protective care of the British supervised Indian Army escort. It would have been elegant of her to have crossed back into India anonymously just as she had begun her journey crossing into Tibetan territory anonymously.
I bought this book for a friend, having read it myself years ago. The tale of the intrepid Frenchwoman and her adopted son, the lama Yongden, and their travel in disguise into the then-forbidden land of Tibet is a classic tale of adventure, made all the more fascinating because she was the first western woman to attempt such a feat. An erudite Buddhist scholar and fluent speaker of Tibetan, she was 55 when she started her journey. Dying her skin to look darker and wearing a black yak-hair wig, dressed in the rags of a poor Tibetan pilgrim, she and her companion traveled by foot in winter through hazardous conditions--once, trapped by a snowstorm, they spent a week in a cave and boiled their leather boots for sustenance. This book is erudite, spiritual and also quite funny, well worth reading and re-reading.
I came across this book for the first time about 30 yrs ago. At that time I borrowed it from the library in Swedish after having read a book review in the local newspaper. A marvelous story that let my imagination go wild. This trip would not be easy in today's world, much less 80-90 years ago. I forgot the name of the author and the name of the book later but every once in a while I'd try to search for it - thank goodness for the Internet! Finally I found what seemed to be the right book. This has been my evening reading now and it is as enjoyable as ever. I envy the author for her courage and perseverance. Someone might find the description of the journey somewhat monotonous but it is what it is. Pretty splendid in my opinion.
This book has two valuble things It present a protrait of the old Tibet pre-chinese invasion, and shows Alexandra David Neel's personality.
Some people find the reading boring at the point of not even finish it, David Neel has serious troubles to progress with the narration, she takes too much time describing minimal trivial details of each place and situation, making the reading dull and a bit tiresome sometimes. There is also a tinge of self-conceit and egocentrism from hers, you can notice it along the narrative.
It is very interesting her hidden journey into central Tibet, one can discover the stubborn and perseverance who took David Neel to the confines of the Himalayas.