Trans Himalaya: Discoveries and Adventures in Tibet

"My long journey backwards and forward over the TransHimalaya cannot be regarded as more that a cursory and defective reconnaissance of a country hitherto unknown. It is easier to go to Lhasa with a force armed to the teeth, and shoot down the Tibetans like pheasants if they stand in the way, than to cross Tibet in all direction for two long years with four governments and all the authorities of the land as opponents, twelve poor Ladakis as companions, and not a single man as escort. It is no merit of mine that I was long able to maintain a position which from the first seemed untenable. The same lucky star looked down, as often before, on my lonely course through vast Asia, since I first took up my pilgrim staff. “Go, then, out into the world thou ringing and sonorous name for one of the world’s mightiest mountain systems, and find thy way into geograp hical textbooks and remind children in the schools of the snowcrowned summits on the Roof of the World, among which the monsoon storms have sung their deafening chorus since the beginning. As long as I live, my proudest memorieslike royal eagles, will soar round the cold desolate crags of the TransHimalaya.”