EARTH TREMORS AHEAD Pay no attention to the subtitle of this book, ‘How the Dalai Lama Conquered the World but Lost the Battle with China’. The author says relatively little about His Holiness, possibly because so much has already been written. As for losing the battle with China, if one thing emerges it is that … Continue reading
NO EVENT GENERATES AS MUCH INTERNATIONAL PRESS IN McLEODGANJ AS THE MISS TIBET CONTEST, A SMALL TOWN BEAUTY PAGEANT WITH A BIG FOLLOWING. THIS YEAR, SIX TIBETANS COMPETED FOR THE CROWN. Tenzin Yangkyi, a 17-year-old Tibetan from Zurich, Switzerland waves to the crowd after winning the Miss Tibet 2011 beauty pageant in Dharamshala, India, Sunday, June … Continue reading
THE HEART OF THE MATTER This is an unusual book from Colin Thubron, regarded by many as the world’s greatest travel writer. It’s short – just 218 pages – and less dense than his other books, which often involve rambling journeys through the world’s forgotten places. Think Russia, Siberia, Central Asia or 1980s China, their … Continue reading
At the end of the hippy trail When Elliot Sperling first arrived in McLeodganj in 1971, he was finishing one of the epic journeys of the twentieth century – the overland trail from Europe to Asia. Travelling through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to India was a rite of passage for a generation, but one … Continue reading