Download or read book Explorers of the Western Himalayas 1820 1895 written by John Keay and published by John Murray Pubs Limited. This book was released on 1996 with total page 571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where men and mountains meet -- The Gilgit game.
Download or read book When Men and Mountains Meet written by John Keay and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book When Men and Mountains Meet written by John Keay and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book When Men and Mountains Meet written by John Keay and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1994-02 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The majestic and sublime Himalayas have long exerted a powerful force on the imaginations of explorers and travelers. Indeed, as a challenge for these adventurous souls, the mountain wilderness that separates the Indian subcontinent from Inner Asia is unique: no similar region has ever aroused such intense interest. When Men and Mountains Meet, a book based largely on out-of-print and archival material, is the first narrative account of the early exploration of this incomparable part of the world. The difficulty of exploration was not only natural (though the terrain, of course, is the most formidable on earth), but man-made as well: the Himalayas, then as now, are strategic and political boundaries of great importance. Consequently, independent travelers were discouraged from expeditions, while official travelers operated behind a dense screen of secrecy. Yet despite these obstacles, between 1820 and 1875 the Western Himalayas were explored by a number of extraordinary characters. In these pages we meet some of the most intrepid explorers of all time: the American adventurer Alexander Gardiner; Joseph Wolff, who earned the sobriquet of "mad missionary"; Thomas Thomson the Scottish naturalist; Moorcroft, whose exploits have since become legendary in the region; and the dogged surveyor Godwin. All fully lived up to their magnificent setting, and all are once again brought to life in this compelling saga of humankind versus nature.
Download or read book The Great Explorers written by Robin Hanbury-Tenison and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Penetrating biographies written by a group of distinguished travel writers, broadcasters, and historians reveal the lives, motives, and passions of forty major explorers in history. It has always been mankind’s gift, or curse, to be inquisitive, and through the ages people have been driven to explore the limits of the worlds known to them—and beyond. Here are the stories of forty of the world’s greatest explorers from Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. These are men and women who changed our perception of the world through their courageous adventures. Organized thematically, the book opens with the oceanic journeys of five hundred years ago, when the great era of recorded exploration began. The following sections look at The Land, Rivers, Polar Ice, Deserts, Life on Earth, and New Frontiers. Many of these explorers recounted their journeys in vivid firsthand accounts; others were superb artists or photographers. The book features quotes from their journals and reports, and it is illustrated with paintings, photographs, engravings, and maps, so that we can experience their adventures through their own eyes and in their own words. Featured explorers include: Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, James Cook, Lewis and Clark, Richard Burton, Samuel de Champlain, David Livingstone, Roald Amundsen, Gertrude Bell, Alexander von Humboldt, Yuri Gagarin, and Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
Download or read book Britain and Tibet 1765 1947 written by Julie G. Marshall and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This bibliography is a record of British relations with Tibet in the period 1765 to 1947. As such it also involves British relations with Russia and China, and with the Himalayan states of Ladakh, Lahul and Spiti, Kumaon and Garhwal, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Assam, in so far as British policy towards these states was affected by her desire to establish relations with Tibet. It also covers a subject of some importance in contemporary diplomacy. It was the legacy of unresolved problems concerning Tibet and its borders, bequeathed to India by Britain in 1947, which led to border disputes and ultimately to war between India and China in 1962. These borders are still in dispute today. It also provides background information to Tibet's claims to independence, an issue of current importance. The work is divided into a number of sections and subsections, based on chronology, geography and events. The introductions to each of the sections provide a condensed and informative history of the period and place the books and article in their historical context. Most entries are also annotated. This work is therefore both a history and a bibliography of the subject, and provides a rapid entry into a complex area for scholars in the fields of international relations and military history as well as Asian history.
Download or read book Himalaya written by Philip Parker and published by Anova Books. This book was released on 2012-11-30 with total page 673 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At some 1500 miles long and 250 miles at its widest the Himalaya range is home to the fourteen greatest mountain peaks on the planet each of which towers over 8,000 metres. Celebrated by the region�s early ancient kingdoms, many of these peaks remain sacred in both the Hindu and Buddhist religions and have additionally inspired western explorers and adventurers for some 300 years. Himalaya examines the geographical origins of the region, its earliest peoples and the onward western discovery and exploration commencing with the Jesuits, progressing through myriad nineteenth century gentlemen surveyors, culminating in Edmund Hilary and Tensing Norgay�s ascent of Everest in 1953 and continuing to the present day with extreme mountaineers and adventure tourists. However the book does not solely deal with the attempts to summit the majestic Everest. Its broader brief, and chronological structure, allows the inclusion of narrative and journal extracts from the equally heroic pioneering ascents of Himalayan peaks including K2 (1954), Nanga Parbat (1953), Annapurna (1950), Kangchenjunga (1955), and Lhotse (1956) as well as subsequent new frontiers, peaks, routes and mountaineering techniques. The volume includes specially commissioned pieces where legendary climbers reflect on their intrepid experiences and heroism on the highest mountains on earth. These accounts are set beside stunning commissioned cartography, historical photographs, newly shot stills of ephemera and artifacts as well as the most recent Himalayan work from some of the world�s leading adventure photographers.
Download or read book Stormcatcher written by Linda Eketoft and published by Partridge Publishing Singapore. This book was released on 2020-05-26 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Argentinian from Buenos Aires, Christian Pereira, sails in Antarctica. It is the end of February and other sailors are heading home as winter approaches the continent. One sleepless night he picks up a book that he has found in his attic at home. Browsing through the text about the Western Himalayas, his eyes get fixed on the mysterious death of a British explorer and spy who was sent out by the British to influence a commercial treaty by which the entire Central Asia would open for trade. He later identifies a connection between the man and his great grandfather. Knowing the truth turns into an obsession. The Antarctic landscape slowly starts to influence Christian. Sneaking into a research station in search for food one night, he accidently runs into Fyodor, an unpredictable Russian scientist with a mysterious past who forces Christian to give him a lift on his boat to complete his secret scientific study. This is only the beginning of a journey that turns out to be Christian’s biggest challenge yet. StormCatcher is a Thriller of a journey that leaves the reader breathless.
Download or read book The Gilgit Game written by John Keay and published by John Murray. This book was released on 1979 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The exploration and appropriation of the wilderness in the heart of the Western Himalayas has become known as the "Gilgit Game" in recognition of its importance as a crucial episode in the "Great Game"--the century-long rivalry between Russia and British India for control of Central Asia. Indeed, authors from Kipling to Masters have treated this struggle as the epitome of this competition between nations. But as John Keay shows in this fascinating and readable account of an exciting period in colonial India, the real characters in this drama were more than a match for their fictional counterparts. With humor, sympathy, and admiration of this small group of intelligence agents, Keay describes the activities that had such far-reaching repercussions in the region. Through extensive research and his own intimate knowledge of the terrain, Keay sheds new light on the once top secret geographical discoveries made by these men, discoveries they were prevented from publishing during their lifetimes. A fresh look at a little-known aspect of political intrigue, this is the first narrative account of Himalayan exploration set against the backdrop of espionage and military brinkmanship.
Download or read book Mapping the Great Game written by Riaz Dean and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2020-01-19 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of explorers, surveyors and spies in the race to conquer Southern Asia is vividly recounted in this history of British imperial cartography. In the 19th century, the British and Russian empires were engaged in bitter rivalry for the acquisition of Southern Asian. Although India was the ultimate prize, most of the intrigue and action took place along its northern frontier in Afghanistan, Turkestan and Tibet. Mapping the region and gaining knowledge of the enemy were crucial to the interests of both sides. The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India began in the 18th century with the aim of creating a detailed map of the subcontinent. Under the leadership of George Everest—whose name was later bestowed to the world’s tallest mountain—the it mapped the Great Arc running from the country’s southern tip to the Himalayas. Much of the work was done by Indian explorers known as Pundits. They were the first to reveal the mysteries of the forbidden city of Lhasa, and discover the true course of Tibet’s mighty Tsangpo River. These explorers performed essential information gathering for the British Empire and filled in large portions of the map of Asia. Their adventurous exploits are vividly recounted in Mapping the Great Game.
Download or read book An End to Suffering written by Pankaj Mishra and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2010-08-24 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An End to Suffering is a deeply original and provocative book about the Buddha's life and his influence throughout history, told in the form of the author's search to understand the Buddha's relevance in a world where class oppression and religious violence are rife, and where poverty and terrorism cast a long, constant shadow. Mishra describes his restless journeys into India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, among Islamists and the emerging Hindu middle class, looking for this most enigmatic of religious figures, exploring the myths and places of the Buddha's life, and discussing Western explorers' "discovery" of Buddhism in the nineteenth century. He also considers the impact of Buddhist ideas on such modern politicians as Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. As he reflects on his travels and on his own past, Mishra shows how the Buddha wrestled with problems of personal identity, alienation, and suffering in his own, no less bewildering, times. In the process Mishra discovers the living meaning of the Buddha's teaching, in the world and for himself. The result is the most three-dimensional, convincing book on the Buddha that we have.
Download or read book Northern Afghanistan written by Major C. E. Yate and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Joint Afghan Boundary Commission - an Anglo-Russian venture whose task it was to delineate the frontier between Northern Afghanistan and Russia’s Central Asian territories, scientifically and permanently, thus replacing the 1873 line drawn from vague and inaccurate maps - was to rendezvous at Sarakhs, on the modern border of Iran and Turkmenistan, in October 1884. Presented as a series of letters written at different times from the commission, and published in connected form, Yate’s Northern Afghanistan describes in detail the year-long progress of the commission. Included are valuable notes on Herat and its extant buildings, before the strategic destruction of a number of these for defensive purposes, together with descriptions of Mazar-i-Sharif, the Oxus, and the Hindu Kush mountains. This is a fascinating, first-hand account of Afghanistan’s political demarcation - many features of which, such as the Wakhan Corridor, remain with us today - and of travel through an area whose potential for destability persists to the present day. This edition maintains all the material from the original 1888 edition, including the plan of Balkh. Only the maps have been reduced in scale.
Download or read book Empire written by Niall Ferguson and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-03-17 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bestselling historian shows how the British Empire created the modern world, in a book lauded as "a rattling good tale" (Wall Street Journal) and "popular history at its best" (Washington Post) The British Empire was the largest in all history: the nearest thing to global domination ever achieved. The world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's Age of Empire. The global spread of capitalism, telecommunications, the English language, and institutions of representative government -- all these can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population and culture from the seventeenth century until the mid-twentieth. On a vast and vividly colored canvas, Empire shows how the British Empire acted as midwife to modernity. Displaying the originality and rigor that have made Niall Ferguson one of the world's foremost historians, Empire is a dazzling tour de force -- a remarkable reappraisal of the prizes and pitfalls of global empire.
Download or read book Journeys on the Silk Road written by Joyce Morgan and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012-08-22 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a Chinese monk broke into a hidden cave in 1900, he uncovered one of the world’s great literary secrets: a time capsule from the ancient Silk Road. Inside, scrolls were piled from floor to ceiling, undisturbed for a thousand years. The gem within was the Diamond Sutra of AD 868. This key Buddhist teaching, made 500 years before Gutenberg inked his press, is the world’s oldest printed book. The Silk Road once linked China with the Mediterranean. It conveyed merchants, pilgrims and ideas. But its cultures and oases were swallowed by shifting sands. Central to the Silk Road’s rediscovery was a man named Aurel Stein, a Hungarian-born scholar and archaeologist employed by the British service. Undaunted by the vast Gobi Desert, Stein crossed thousands of desolate miles with his fox terrier Dash. Stein met the Chinese monk and secured the Diamond Sutra and much more. The scroll’s journey—by camel through arid desert, by boat to London’s curious scholars, by train to evade the bombs of World War II—merges an explorer’s adventures, political intrigue, and continued controversy. The Diamond Sutra has inspired Jack Kerouac and the Dalai Lama. Its journey has coincided with the growing appeal of Buddhism in the West. As the Gutenberg Age cedes to the Google Age, the survival of the Silk Road’s greatest treasure is testament to the endurance of the written word.
Download or read book Cartographic Fictions written by Karen Lynnea Piper and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maps are stories as much about us as about the landscape. They reveal changing perceptions of the natural world, as well as conflicts over the acquisition of territories. Cartographic Fictions looks at maps in relation to journals, correspondence, advertisements, and novels by authors such as Joseph Conrad and Michael Ondaatje. In her innovative study, Karen Piper follows the history of cartography through three stages: the establishment of the prime meridian, the development of aerial photography, and the emergence of satellite and computer mapping. Piper follows the cartographer's impulse to "leave the ground" as the desire to escape the racialized or gendered subject. With the distance that the aerial view provided, maps could then be produced "objectively," that is, devoid of "problematic" native interference. Piper attempts to bring back the dialogue of the "native informant," demonstrating how maps have historically constructed or betrayed anxieties about race. The book also attempts to bring back key areas of contact to the map between explorer/native and masculine/feminine definitions of space.
Download or read book Britain and Tibet 1765 1947 written by Julie Marshall and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-11-23 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This bibliography is a record of British relations with Tibet in the period from 1765 to 1947. It also provides background information to Tibet's claims to independence, an issue of current importance. The work is divided into a number of sections and subsections, based on chronology, geography and events. The introductions to each of the sections provide a condensed and informative history of the period and place the books and articles in their historical context. This work is both a history and a bibliography of the subject, and provides a rapid entry into a complex area for scholars in the fields of international relations and military history as well as Asian history.
Download or read book Into India written by John Keay and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic introduction to one of the world's most fascinating countries