Mustang lies on the roof of the world north of Nepal and surrounded on three sides by Chinese held Tibet; foreigners were forbidden to enter its territory and virtually nothing was known about its people and their civilization until Michel Peissel obtained permission to make a long stay there. To reach the walled capital, Lo Mantang, his small caravan of yaks and porters had to make their way fifteen days across the Himalayas. In Mustang he found a mediaeval world uniquely preserved from modern technology, in which the wheel is not used, the earth is believed to be flat and polyandry is practised. Warmly received by the King, the author, who speaks Tibetan, visited the great castles, many monasteries (some of them subterranean), the lonely hermitages and the remote villages. He studied the religion, history, laws and customs of the land of Lo, as it is called in Tibetan, and made such close friends amongst the Lamas, Dukes, Counts, scholars, rich traders, royal dancers, peasants and serfs, that he even received, by baptism, a Loba name, Shelkagari- Crystal Clear Mountain. Of his journey he says: I have been fortunate in having been able to explore one of the last uninvestigated corners of our planet… a land where the soul of the man is still considered to be as real as the soul of the man is still considered to be as real as the feet he walks on; a land said to be " barren as a dead deer" but where beauty and happiness abound in spite of hardship. His good fortune Michel Peissel has generously shared with his readers; his book is a milestone in the history of Himalayan exploration and the understanding of Tibetan culture.
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