My Journey to Lhasa: The Personal Story of the only White Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City

Alexandra David-Néel

Jan 2023 · Open Road Media

Ebook

310

Pages

Eligible

About this ebook

This early-twentieth-century adventure travel memoir by a female explorer is "the sort of thriller yarn that keeps you up all night and is too soon over" ( Ms.).

In this extraordinary mix of travelogue and autobiography, Madame Alexandra David-Néel details her 1923 expedition to Lhasa as the first Western woman to enter Tibet's Forbidden City. Recounting how she traveled with her adopted son, posing as a beggar and relying on her fluency in Tibetan dialects and culture, David-Néel relates a story of survival among harsh conditions and the ever-present danger of being discovered as a white woman, as well as her triumphant meeting with the Dalai-Lama. A compelling narrative by an adventurer, explorer, and passionate student of Buddhism, My Journey to Lhasa is an inspiring work of travel literature by a remarkable woman.

" My Journey to Lhasa . . . involves us intensely in a world that no longer exists—that of free Tibet. . . . [David-Néel's] descriptions of the landscape are fervent and her understanding of the Tibetans admirably unsentimental. Her Tibet is not at all the philosophers' kingdom of Lost Horizon; it is a fierce . . . frequently dangerous place, where she had to exercise the utmost ingenuity to survive." — The New York Times Book Review

"A lively account . . . and a classic portrait of Tibet, its region, and its people." — The Bloomsbury Review

"David-Néel was indisputably a fearless traveler, a rogue's rogue. Her account has the power to awe even today." — Outside

"As a traveler, she has performed a brilliant feat." — New Statesman

This early-twentieth-century adventure travel memoir by a female explorer is "the sort of thriller yarn that keeps you up all night and is too soon over" ( Ms.). In this extraordinary mix of travelogue and autobiography, Madame Alexandra David-Néel details her 1923 expedition to Lhasa as the fir...

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About the author

Alexandra David-Néel was a Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist, opera singer, and writer. She is most known for her 1924 visit to Lhasa, Tibet, when it was forbidden to foreigners. David-Néel wrote more than thirty books about Eastern religion, philosophy, and her travels, including Magic and Mystery in Tibet, which was published in 1929. Her teachings influenced the beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, the popularizers of Eastern philosophy Alan Watts and Ram Dass, and the esoterism of Benjamin Creme.

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