This tale of an intrepid sixty year old that defied the power of the Great Himalaya is one of invalid woman in the late 1800’s who tempted fate and like other courageous women adventurers of her time such as Nina Mazuchell, Annie Taylor, Fanny Bullock Workman and the famed Alexander David- Neel, went out to prove that women were not meant to just sit at home. This book is a record of her great Tibetan adventure.
The upper reaches of the Himalaya were a favourite haunt of the British as well as the Indian upper classes. It was also the hunt of artists and others whose love of freedom drew them to the pure regions long revered by Hindu and Buddhist alike as the holiest of holy places. A veritable heaven upon earth the Himalaya has since time immemorial attracted the holy men sub -continent as the most suitable environment for their lives of solitude.
Not only do these the highest mountains upon earth present the viewer with awesome vistas of extreme beauty, but also provide them with experience of the raw power of nature upon which they may reflect and ponder in the silence of overwhelming wonder. These seemingly immovable towers have through the ages given birth to the most illuminating thought as well as formed the basis for a culture, which has yet to find a parallel.
It is into this world of wonder that the author carries us as she describes the wondrous Himalaya in their fearsome glory. Her vivid description is not of the Himalaya alone but of the hardy Tibetan peoples who populate their towering heights. Isabella Bird Bishop gives us a detailed description of these people, there lives, their religion and their places of worship. Her journey takes us through the heavenly Kashmir valley and on into the icy wastes of Ladakh. Then she moves on to kulu and Manali and to Shimla the erstwhile summer capital of British India.
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