To a Mountain in Tibet

Feb 25, 2011 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Book of the Week listeners

Shelves: published-2011, winter-20102011, nonfiction, travel

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Jul 25, 2011 Trish rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: asia, adventure, nonfiction, religion, travel, buddhism

"In the beginning Kailas was just rock—rock and stones. Without spirit. Then the gods came down with their entourages and settled there. They may not exactly live there now, but they have left their energy, and the place is full of spirits…"the myth behind Mt. Kailas

Now in his seventies, famed travel writer Colin Thubron left his wife and home in England and trekked to a holy mountain in Tibet from Nepal. It was a personal journey. From Nepal, where his father hunted bear and big cats eighty yea...more

"In the beginning Kailas was just rock—rock and stones. Without spirit. Then the gods came down with their entourages and settled there. They may not exactly live there now, but they have left their energy, and the place is full of spirits…"the myth behind Mt. Kailas

Now in his seventies, famed travel writer Colin Thubron left his wife and home in England and trekked to a holy mountain in Tibet from Nepal. It was a personal journey. From Nepal, where his father hunted bear and big cats eighty years before, Thubron headed to Kailas, or Gangs Rinpoche, the holy mountain, the “precious jewel of snow.”

”Early wanderers to the source of the four great Indian rivers—the Indus, the Ganges, the Sutlej, and the Brahmaputra—found to their wonder that each one rose near a cardinal point of Kailas.”

Kailas is a holy mountain for Buddhists and Hindu alike, and thousands of worshippers every year pilgrimage to Kailas to circumnavigate the base.

At 15,000 feet, the base of Kailas is 52 km long, and it sits next to the highest freshwater lake in the world, Manasarovar. Kailas is reflected in its waters: “To the Hindus…the lake is mystically wedded to the mountain, whose phallic dome is answered in the vagina of its dark waters.” Kailas has never been climbed. Perhaps it is true that “only a man entirely free from sin could climb Kailas.” Thubron’s journey to Kailas is spiritual as well. He meditates on his life, his recently deceased mother and long-dead sister as he walks, but he shares with us what he sees along the route, in case we don’t get the chance.

The journey begins as if “through a ruined English garden,” strewn with viburnum, jasmine and syringa, honeysuckle, dogwood and buddleia. Soon the track becomes “savage and precipitous,” and as he gets closer to Kailas, the road becomes positively alive with pilgrims dressed “in a motley of novelty and tradition,” often scattered in groups of two or three, who look "unquenchably happy". And closer yet:

The monks, who have been praying in a seated line for hours, advance in a consecrating procession. Led by the abbot of Gyangdrak monastery from a valley under Kailas, they move in shambling pomp, pumping horns and conch shells, clashing cymbals. Small and benign in his thin-rimmed spectacles, the abbot hold up sticks of smouldering incense, while behind him the saffron banners fall in tiers of folded silks, like softly collapsed pagodas. Behind these again the ten-foot horns, too heavy to be carried by one monk, move stentorously forward, their bell-flares attached by cords to the man in front. Other monks, shouldering big drums painted furiously with dragons, follow in a jostle of wizardish red hats, while a venerable elder brings up the rear, cradling a silver tray of utensils and a bottle of Pepsi-Cola.”

But finally the destination is reached, and a Buddhist monk shares his philosophy: “Only karma lasts. Merit and demerit. Nothing of the individual survives. From all that he loves, man must part.”
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Apr 27, 2013 Don rated it 3 of 5 stars

(FROM MY BLOG) To the north, beyond the main range of the Himalayas, emerging from the Tibetan plateau, stands an isolated peak called Kailas. Although only 22,028 feet high, quite low by Himalayan standards, no climber has ever stood on its summit (except, apocryphally, a mystic in ancient times). It may never be climbed.

Kailas is a holy mountain to a number of religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism.

To Hindus, Kailas is identified as the earthly manifestation of the mystical mountain Meru....more

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Oct 28, 2012 Grady McCallie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: buddhism

In this relatively short (218 page) book, travel writer and novelist Colin Thubron recounts a trek from Nepal to Tibet, where he ultimately circles Mount Kailas, a holy mountain sought by Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Bon pilgrims. His journey is fairly short, and far from epic, but he observes and describes the landscape and people he meets with such care, that the story expands and commands attention. The trip is also as much an internal as an external pilgrimage; Thubron took this trip some mont...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: tibet

This is a book with great prose and a lot of informed insight, but I had a tough time getting my bearings.

First, the title is confusing. This IS a trip TO a mountain... and then 3/4 up it. It doesn't help that the first 100+ pages describe a descent. The book's map shows the towns visited, but the map is cluttered and the trek and drive portions are not labeled. It was hard to make out for sure where the author was actually going, but it appeared to be more than "to" the mountain. Halfway throug...more This is a book with great prose and a lot of informed insight, but I had a tough time getting my bearings.

First, the title is confusing. This IS a trip TO a mountain... and then 3/4 up it. It doesn't help that the first 100+ pages describe a descent. The book's map shows the towns visited, but the map is cluttered and the trek and drive portions are not labeled. It was hard to make out for sure where the author was actually going, but it appeared to be more than "to" the mountain. Halfway through the book I learned that the 22,000 foot Mount Kailas(h) has never been scaled, so a full ascent was eliminated as a possibility. It took me till near the end of the book to actually get my bearings. In a travel book, the basic destination (or purpose) of the trip should be known up front.

This wasn't the only thing unclear. There was mention of British trekkers on p. 6 and that they would help in entering China but what this was about wasn't clear until sometime after p. 100. Digressions sometimes made it hard to grasp the nature of what was happening. The best example is the description of Saga Dawa (p. 147 - 163). The sentences are beautifully written but they are disorganized. I had to go to Wikipedia to understand the fundamental nature of the rite. Looking back to the text, it was there, but lost in the descriptions and digressions.

I read an "uncorrected proof" from the Amazon Vine program, so perhaps things were changed with final publication.

At the sentence level, this is great writing: i.e. p. 89 on yaks "Their heads stoop, as if overwhelmed by the weight of their massive horns. Their manes jangle with tasseled bells. They are all but immune to the snow...". There are very good descriptions of villages and lives of local people. There are snips of conversation that give a profile of the every day life and hopes and aspirations of his cook, guide and people met along the road. I like that he gives attention to the women, prodding them to answer questions after their husbands think that they have spoken for them.

There is a refreshingly realistic look at the Tibetan Buddhism. The author parallels its military and (corrupted) political history to that of the Catholic Church. Sky burial, which is too often romanticized (for an example read: Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet), is described in cringing detail. He shows that like the worlds great monotheisms in Europe and the Middle East, Buddhism and Hinduism are synchretic in the Himalayas.

This sort of travelogue is not my favorite genre. I prefer "travel" books written by people who spend longer times in one place, living and working among the people. Resident authors can present deeper portraits of the people and places. Colin Thubron is not a stranger to this region or culture and has a very well informed interpretation of what he encounters. Perhaps the poor organization of this material is due to his personal loss before this trip.

For the author's scope and the beautiful prose this is 4 to 5 star book. The problems noted above make it 3 stars or less, so I'm going to weight my stars on the side of the author's perspective, his humane understanding of the people and culture, and his descriptive prose. (less)

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May 22, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

This memoir is about the author's pilgramage to Mt Kailas(22,000 feet) to reflect on his mother's death. He talked more of his outer journey than his inner journey, supplying interesting facts about where he goes and what he sees, supplying some details I hadn't put together.

Mt. Ksilas is believed to be where Buddists and Hindus believe where earth and heaven are joined, where sanctity replenishes the earth, where gods reside (Including Shiva), and inside of which is a heaven-connecting rope dow...more This memoir is about the author's pilgramage to Mt Kailas(22,000 feet) to reflect on his mother's death. He talked more of his outer journey than his inner journey, supplying interesting facts about where he goes and what he sees, supplying some details I hadn't put together.

Mt. Ksilas is believed to be where Buddists and Hindus believe where earth and heaven are joined, where sanctity replenishes the earth, where gods reside (Including Shiva), and inside of which is a heaven-connecting rope down which the first Tibetan kings descended. It is so light, it could fly. So It was staked in place by prayer banners and Buddha nailed it down with 4 footprints so devils could not pull it underground. It is also holy to the Jain and to the Bons, an ancient Tibetan religion. Amazingly, it hasn't been climbed, although there was an attempt in 1926 and Reinhold Messner planned an assault in the 1980's, but did not receive permission.

Pilgrims circle the mountain (a kora), some through prostrating, most by walking. A single circuit, if walked in piety, will dispel the defilement of a lifetime, even requiting the murder of a lama or parent, while 108 kiras lift the pilgrim into Buddhahood. A rich man could pay another to make the circuit, but the virtue would be divided between them. Even a beast -- yak or pony -- gets half the merit if ridden. Animals and humans suffer from "drib" -- earthly contamination that accumulates, in addition to the sins one commits.

Chortens are miniature Mt. Merus, which has converged with Mt. Kailas. These chortens, found throughout Tibet, may contain funerary remains, but more often scriptures and relics that are too damaged to be used, but too holy to throw away. They have a square plinth under a concave drum that ascends to 13 successively smaller rings or wheels, topped by a crescent moon cradling the sun. Their 5 chief components signify Buddhist elements, as prayer flags do, also representing a path to enlightenment. The crowning disc on the sun transmits solar wisdom and lunar compassion into pure truth. The chortens enclose a verticle beam that is both a symbol of Meru-Kailas and a male archetype infusing a female body.

Death is a theme whenever Tibetan Buddhism is concerned. Thubron visited a charnal ground, explaining that holy law only permits burial to criminals and plague victims -- sealing them to prevent their reincarnation and eliminating their kind for ever. The destitute are often put in rivers. The highest lamas are embalmed, while less grand lamas are cremated and their ashes put in chortens. Sky burial is for the rests. Vultures are sacred and thought to be emanations of white dakinis --peaceful sky dancers. Surrendering a corpse to them is the last charity of its owner and lightens their karma. The birds do not pollute the earth (defacting in the sky) So in death, Tibetans keep flying upwards until the sun and wind take them apart.

The book gives one the flavor of the difficulty of such a trek, the range of personalities and nationalities one can meet, and the cloud of Chinese intimidation and control, even during the most religious of ceremonies.

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Nov 03, 2011 Nesa Sivagnanam rated it 5 of 5 stars

To a Mountain in Tibet tells the story of a secular pilgrimage to the sacred slopes of Kailas in the western Himalaya. Travelling on foot with a cook, a guide and a horse man, Thubron sets out from Humla, the remotest of the Nepalese regions.

Steering at first by the Karnali river, the group soon swings north-west towards the Nala Kankar Himal that shelves into Tibet, walking under walnut and apricot trees, through silent Thakuri villages and paddy fields, where traders once bartered salt and wo...more To a Mountain in Tibet tells the story of a secular pilgrimage to the sacred slopes of Kailas in the western Himalaya. Travelling on foot with a cook, a guide and a horse man, Thubron sets out from Humla, the remotest of the Nepalese regions.

Steering at first by the Karnali river, the group soon swings north-west towards the Nala Kankar Himal that shelves into Tibet, walking under walnut and apricot trees, through silent Thakuri villages and paddy fields, where traders once bartered salt and wool for lowland grains. Thubron conjures the wobble of a tin bridge over a torrent, the "cathedral shadow" of spruce and prickly oak and the two-note song of a Himalayan cuckoo over smooth grasslands.

A great number of monasteries punctuate this latest journey, furnishing the prayer wheels and flags indigenous to Tibetan narratives.

This journey, he reveals in the opening pages, is a form of mourning for his mother, who has recently died – the last of his living family.

Thubron uses Buddhism to inform reflections on the cycle of life and the meaning of suffering. Or he tries to: often "memories come too hard for quiet thought".

"The journey does not nurture reflection, as I once hoped," he observes elsewhere. "The going is too hard, too steep." After an especially breathless climb in the rarefied air at 11,000ft, hard by the Torea Pass and just before the book's halfway mark, he recalls the moment his mother clutched at the oxygen mask for the last time, equipment lights winking, regulation curtains closing off the bed.

Juniper and birdsong diminish, and the band camps below the 15,000ft Nara Pass defile into Tibet. At half light, a herd of goats canter through, each carrying a saddlebag of salt and capering to the whistles of Humla buccaneers in conical caps. Across the border, all visitors must travel in Landcruisers to Taklakot, once the capital of an independent kingdom. But China Mobile billboards have replaced 60ft silk banners and obliterated the remnants of feudal sorcery. Taklakot is an image of "lunar placelessness" with "the gutted feel of other Chinese frontier places".

Onwards to Manasarovar, 200 square miles of water at 15,000ft, a full-blown paradise in the sixth-century Puranas and still the holiest of the world's lakes. Here the Buddha's mother purified herself before receiving him into her womb. Thubron visits a cave where Yeshe Tsogyal, Tibet's great saint, spent his last week in a sacred trance.

Finally, at the climax of both journey and book, the perfect cone of Kailas. "The mountain is swathed in such a dense and changing mystique that it eludes simple portrayal," says Thubron. Isolated beyond the parapet of the central Himalaya, Kailas permeated early Hindu scriptures as the mystic Mount Meru. Buddhist texts similarly reveal the pagan gods of the mountain converting to Buddhism and dispatching a multitude of flying bodhisattvas – saints who have delayed entry to nirvana to help others – to protect the furthest crags, lighting up the mountain with their compassion.

Around the base, Thubron finds little compassion – just prostitutes and angry Chinese police swinging riot shields and truncheons (Kailas lies in a disputed border region). Thubron makes the ascent, along with hundreds of pilgrims heading to a zone of "charged sanctity" to find peace with their own dead. At the highest monastery, Choku Gompa, he finds "monks nested like swallows in little cells", single butter lamps casting rods of light on to the snow.

During the last thousand feet of a kora (pilgrimage climb), both Hindus and Buddhists pass into ritual death. The breathless ascent will release them to new life. And so the final chapter finds Thubron at 17,000ft, where the coffee goes cold before he drinks it.

Are there ever any, in life? "A journey is not a cure," he says. "It brings an illusion, only, of change, and becomes at least a Spartan comfort . . . To ask of a journey, Why? Is to hear only my own silence." (less)

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May 11, 2011 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: librarybooks

‘I am doing this on account of the dead.’

In this book, Colin Thubron sets of towards Mount Kailas, the sacred and mystical mountain in Tibet which is sacred to the Bon, to Buddhists, Hindus and Jains. Mount Kailas is close to the Tibetan borders with Nepal and India, and lies very close to the sources of all of the four major rivers of the Indian subcontinent: the Brahmaputra, the Ganges, the Indus and the Sutlej. The mountain rises abruptly from the flat western Tibetan plateau, approximately 2...more ‘I am doing this on account of the dead.’

In this book, Colin Thubron sets of towards Mount Kailas, the sacred and mystical mountain in Tibet which is sacred to the Bon, to Buddhists, Hindus and Jains. Mount Kailas is close to the Tibetan borders with Nepal and India, and lies very close to the sources of all of the four major rivers of the Indian subcontinent: the Brahmaputra, the Ganges, the Indus and the Sutlej. The mountain rises abruptly from the flat western Tibetan plateau, approximately 2000 kilometres from Lhasa.

No one has ever successfully climbed Mount Kailas: the thousands who make a pilgrimage to it each year circumambulate it. Buddhists and Hindus walk clockwise around the mountain, Jains and the Bon walk counterclockwise. Many believe that circumambulating Mount Kailas is a holy ritual that will bring good fortune. It is a very tough pilgrimage: the path is 52 kilometres long, one of the passes to be crossed is at 5,500 metres and many endure severe altitude sickness. Some pilgrims, sold cheap trekking tickets by unscrupulous tour operators, are often badly affected by altitude sickness because they are not allowed sufficient time to acclimatize.

‘Where are you?’

Colin Thubron undertook this journey after the death of his mother left him as the only surviving member of his family. His pilgrimage may be secular, but it is still spiritual. And his economical prose seems perfectly suited to describing the barren landscape around Mount Kailas: a landscape dotted with prayer flags.

‘The value of things no longer belongs to cost or beauty, but only to memory.’

It’s ultimately a journey without an end: there are no answers available for the questions that Colin Thubron has. And yet, to read this book is to gain a sense of the sacredness of the space traversed, and the changes wrought by time and political change. A few monasteries still survive, and the Chinese now allow a limited number of pilgrims access to the mountain.

This book is both a deeply personal journey and a captivating travelogue of a remote, harsh and inaccessible place that most of us will never see. What makes this book special is the sense of being a pilgrim on this journey. Colin Thubron writes of who he meets and of what he sees, of the history, religion and practices of the region.

It’s a fascinating, short but incredibly dense, book.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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Dec 23, 2012 Rowena Dela Rosa Yoon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel

This book tells the simple story of a secular pilgrimage to the sacred slopes of Kailas in the western Himalaya. Travelling on foot with a cook, a guide and a horse man, Thubron sets out from Humla, the remotest of the Nepalese regions.

Ishwor (the guide): Why are your doing this, travelling alone?
Thubron: I cannot asnwer...I need to leave a sign of their passage (his parents)...The reason for this is beyond articulation. A journey is not a cure. It brings an illusion, only, of change, and becom...more

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Feb 25, 2011 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lee

Recommended to Laura by: Bettie

Shelves: audio-books, travel, read-2011, tibet

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 31, 2011 Marialyce rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, march-2011

I was looking forward to this book as I love things relating to the Tibetan culture. I did very much enjoy the beginning of this novel. but the middle and end brought out my frustration as I continued to feel the very soul of this novel ebb away. I understood that Mr Thubron is basically a travel writing author, but it was so cold (not only climate wise) as he related the various trials, tribulations, and god/goddesses/monsters and beliefs of these people. It felt it more like a litany of rambli...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Kim G rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

I'm still trying to figure out what I got out of this book. The Tibetan facts/history were not effectively organized, I didn't get to know any interesting characters, and although this book is billed as a sort of elegy for the author's deceased family, other than a few pages on the father's travels and spare paragraphs here and there during the latter half in the book revealing what happened to his sister, they're ultimately non-entities.

I have a feeling a month from now I won't remember much ab...more

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Jan 21, 2011 Will Byrnes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, religion-and-sprituality, travel

To a Mountain in Tibet tells two stories. One is the great travel writer’s observations along his trek to a significant physical and religious site. The other is his inner journey of coming to terms with the death of his mother, whose passing prompted this adventure. The sights, smells and sounds of this arduous walk into a remote, mountainous retreat capture his senses. But it is the local culture and sundry religious views of death that capture his imagination as he treks to the holiest mounta...more To a Mountain in Tibet tells two stories. One is the great travel writer’s observations along his trek to a significant physical and religious site. The other is his inner journey of coming to terms with the death of his mother, whose passing prompted this adventure. The sights, smells and sounds of this arduous walk into a remote, mountainous retreat capture his senses. But it is the local culture and sundry religious views of death that capture his imagination as he treks to the holiest mountain in the world. Four great Indian rivers—the Indus, the Ganges, the Sutlej and the Brahmaputra—Have their sources on or near the mountain Kailas. To a fifth of the world’s population, this peak is the center of everything, to Buddhists and Hindus, and to believers of other religions before those. In Chinese-controlled Tibet, the mountain has never been scaled, but pilgrims walk around it as an act of devotion, and to seek favor from their gods.

To the pious, the mountain radiates gold or refracts like crystal. It is the source of the universe, created from cosmic waters and the mind of Brahma…The sun and the planets orbit it. The Pole Star hangs immutable above. The continents of the world radiate from its centre like lotus petals on a precious sea (Humans occupy the southern petal) and its slopes are heady with the gardens of paradise.

But the God of Death dwells on the mountain. Nothing is total, nothing permanent—not even he. All is flux.

He catalogs a series of religious beliefs as he encounters monasteries destroyed by the Chinese, and remnant shrines and relics, noting the historic interactions of ancient religions, merging, absorbing each other. It would be a good idea to keep a dictionary handy as there are sundry new words to learn. And while it is not necessary to be familiar with eastern religions, it wouldn’t hurt, as Thubron tosses around quite a few names that are unfamiliar to those of us largely innocent of those belief systems.

When he writes about the death of his mother, it is not so much about her physical passing, but how her death affected him. Thubron is trying to cope with her death, and as we learn late in the book, the death at a young age of his sister. But he tells us almost nothing of his relationship with either person. It is their passing that is significant here.

With the death of a last parent, material things—old correspondence, a dilapidated house, a pair of slippers—emerge like orphans to enshrine the dead. My mother threw away nothing. Her drawers spilt out letters, diaries, documents, photos, fifty, seventy, eighty years old, with the stacked correspondence of my father, my dead sister, my nurse, even my nurse’s mother. For months the papers lie piled, waiting. They grow huge with delayed sadness. How to decide what is to survive, what is to perish? The value of things no longer belongs to cost or beauty, but only to memory. The chipped and faded teacup is more precious than the silver tray that nobody used. And the letters bring confusion. Sometimes what was written for a day echoes in your head as if forever. Every one discarded sounds a tiny knell of loss. The past drops away into the waste-paper basket and oblivion, and in this monstrous disburdening, grief returns you to a kind of childish dependence. You sift and preserve (for whom?) and cling to trivia. You have become the guardian of their past, even its recreator.

The themes of connectedness to both the sacred and the real permeate his musings.

As they [a group of passing monks] walk on, I wonder at them, their lightness, their lack of need. They have already passed through a painless, premature death. They have shed what others shed in dying. They will leave nothing material behind them to be divided, claimed or loved. Their dispossession strikes me at once as freedom, and a poignant depletion. Their buoyant laughter follows me up the valley, but I do not quite envy them. I only wonder with a muffled pang what it would be in the West to step outside the chain of bequeathal and inheritance, as they do, until human artifacts mean nothing at all.

It is a relatively short book, but it is not a fast read. This is a book you will want to read at the speed of speech. I found myself frequently re-reading passages, paragraphs, pages, only in part to assure that I had gotten what had just crossed my eyes. Mostly it was to savor the writing, the feeling, chewing a morsel very slowly in order to extract all possible deliciousness. Thubron has a great talent for describing not just what he sees, but the impact of what he sees. His dual career as a travel writer par excellence and a novelist has left us with incomparable writing.

In fact the Times of London publishes a list of the greatest British writers of the post war era, and Thubron continues to be included. It is no shock that he is considered one of the best travel writers ever. Perhaps with ancestors like Dryden and Samuel Morse he has a natural gift for words. Whether for the information imparted here about a very remote place and people or for the more spiritual contemplation of permanence To a Mountain in Tibet is a trek worth taking.

PS - about a week after posting this review, I came across the following on PBS. If you want to see the mountain for yourself, it figures prominently in this edition of Myths and Heroes
http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/vid...
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Mar 22, 2011 Eveline Chao rated it 1 of 5 stars

this writer is known for his beautiful writing, and there was no question that he has a formidable command of language, but i actually found all the poetic words distracting. like it was hard to keep focused on what was happening through the ten million ways of beautifully describing a rock or stream or cloud. there were also a lot of things "gently" verbing, and nothing could ever just straightforwardly sit, walk, look, run, but instead everything had to do all these things using some sort of u...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Colin Thubron is undeniably an amazing writer. Thubron makes a pilgrimage to Kailas, a mountain in Tibet, after his mother dies - the last member of his family. He is so poetic and so descriptive. For example, late in the book he describes a monk as "an eager acolyte with hedgehog hair" and talks about going out in the "rasping cold". Here are another couple of examples that struck me:

"I had planned to burn my parents' love letters, then find I cannot. Instead I start to read, guiltily, fearfull...more

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May 03, 2013 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Simply a stunning book. Colin Thubron travels to Tibet to circumambulate Mt. Kailas after the death of his mother, his last living relative. He enters through Nepal with a guide and a cook. His observations and his writing are haunting. At the base of the mountain, a Tibetan ceremony is recorded. Thousands of pilgrims circle an 80 ft pole strung with prayer flags. The irony is that this is really the middle of NOWHERE, yet Chinese police are EVERYWHERE. It feels very intimidating and reminiscent...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

A short book, compared to most of the author's other travels but, given that this was a shorter trip and a smaller area to traverse, that is to be expected. And, as such, this meant fewer people to meet and talk to and, I suspect, people on a spiritual pilgrimage tend to be pretty focused on their own journey and not so much interested in chit-chatting with authors. This means that the book had to rely on the historical and religious, the structural and the scenic.

The fact that Thubron was maki...more A short book, compared to most of the author's other travels but, given that this was a shorter trip and a smaller area to traverse, that is to be expected. And, as such, this meant fewer people to meet and talk to and, I suspect, people on a spiritual pilgrimage tend to be pretty focused on their own journey and not so much interested in chit-chatting with authors. This means that the book had to rely on the historical and religious, the structural and the scenic.

The fact that Thubron was making the journey in a symbolic way for his family did not lead me to expect great emoting revelations. He is, after all, British and, as a life-long observer, he has never exposed any significant part of himself to his readers (barring his curiosity in the culture and history, his respect, and his interest in the people he met). And he does not owe us that now; the fact that we were allowed to accompany him on his personal journey does not mean he is required to share that journey as well as his physical one. I will admit, though, that what glimpses he revealed and how masterfully he did so, suggested that the personal stories that lie therein would be powerful.

The limiting factors, physical and cast-wise, of this trip resulted in a great deal of description of the religious history and stories and yet there is no real way to show the significance of the rocks and snow and water of a far distant mountain without sharing the significance they carry to their followers. He has always been a somewhat dispassionate observer and I appreciated that he did not romanticize the people or the faith of Tibet. So, while my interest lagged somewhat in some sections, my appreciation of his writing, the flow, the silkiness of his prose rippling past me as I read aloud in my head, read aloud aloud, read aloud in a whisper, as I tried to avoid rushing through the book allowed me to experience the words and their intent and impact.

Note: this is an improvement in the overall depressed tone of his previous book (The Shadow of the Silk Road) but, perhaps in a way, this is as close to elegiac as we will get from this author on a personal level.(less)

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Apr 18, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, travel, mythology

I found this a fascinating journey, all the more inspiring as it was accomplished by a man in his seventies. Despite privations and cold and altitude, most of which he refers to but never with any sense of self-pity, he undertakes a voyage largely on foot up to and around Mount Kailas in Tibet, the sacred mountain of Eastern traditions. In straightforward but poetic language he describes for us the landscape he sees, the peoples he meets, the traditions that imbue every physical feature he negot...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Huw Evans rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel

Travel writers fall into two coarse groups. The first are those who travel to remind themselves how much better things are at home and those who travel to tell you what there is out there that you are missing. If these two groups exist Colin Thubron is in the latter.

High in the Himalayas, in Tibet into which Thubron enters illegally, lies Mount Kailas(h) sacred to Buddhists, Hindus, Jain and Bon. It is a site of pilgrimage where belief systems rub along together without conflict, all pilgrims in...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Amber rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: borrowed

I grabbed To a Mountain in Tibet because I'd love to go to Tibet someday, and duh! It's a book about a guy who goes to Tibet.

But holy cow is it so much more than that. I still conjure up the images I read in it. Beautiful and haunting and enigmatic. The author excels at describing place and people while keeping intact the mystery that surrounds it all. He doesn't hesitate in facing the cultural differences that put him off, and he avoids the unreality that is the legend of Tibet. He doesn't make...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Gypsy Lady rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Why would anybody write a travel book that (to me) discourages others from making the same trip??? (Is it because the writer made the trip and must, therefore, write something?)

Page 43
Meanwhile, from inside the temple throbs a deep, murmurous chant, as if a huge beehive were stirring.

Page 44
"I stare at him across a deep divide." [Of incomprehension.]

Page 200
O child of Buddha-Nature, that which is called death has now arrived You are leaving this world. But in this you are not alone. This happens...more

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May 09, 2011 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is not Colin Thubron's best book, but it's probably his most poignant.
The mountain is Kailas, regarded as holy by one-fifth of the world's population. It has never been climbed, but it has been circled by countless pilgrims of Hindu, Buddhist and Bon faiths. This is what Thubron does for this book, after approaching the mountain from Nepal, almost entirely on foot.
"To a Mountain in Tibet" lacks the quirky characters and misadventures of Thubron's other books. It's not as lively a read as s...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Tyler rated it 3 of 5 stars

Synopsis: In memory of his mother's death, the author makes a trip to the sacred mountain of Kailas of southern Tibet which is the source of four of Asia's greatest rivers (Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra, Karnali (tributary to the Ganges)). His trek starts in Nepal before crossing over the border into Tibet (occupied by China) and onto the beautiful Mount Kailas. The 21,778 foot tall Mount Kailas has never been climbed and is sacred to 1/5 of the world's population (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and B...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Gerald Sinstadt rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-general

The jacket endorsements for Colin Thubron's pre-eminent place among travel writers would be pointless to dispute. However, in this rare case, he does not make it easy for the reader to accompany him on his journey to a sacred Himalayan peak, Kailas.

Physically, the terrain challenges his formidable narrative powers: one barren landscape after another takes the language into rarefied exploration. Nor are the people whom he meets along the way, or who travel with him, of lasting interest. The cont...more

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Dec 15, 2011 Scott rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010s, tibet, walks, hills

To a Mountain in Tibet (2010) reads like a long, long walk. It took me almost six weeks to work my way through its 200 pages ... longer, I suppose than it took Thubron to hike to the holy Tibetan mountain Kailas. Accompanied by a few porters and a cook he trekked across the Nepal-China border, noting along the way the poverty and humility of most of the people he met. The book that resulted from from his notes strikes me as that rare gem among travel writing: an honest account of what it's like...more

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May 15, 2012 Amanda rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction-buddhism, nonfiction-memoir, nonfiction-history, standalone

After the death of his mother, who also was his last living family member, Colin set out on a journey to the mountain of Kailas in Tibet. The mountain is holy to both Hindus and Buddhists and is closely associated with the process of dying and crossing over. Through his eyes we see the people of Tibet and his emotional journey.

I am not sure if words can describe what an epic miss this book was for me. The combination of British western eyes othering Tibetans, an entire chapter dedicated to his f...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Knows rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What makes good travel writing enjoyable is being able to see, and to some degree, comprehend a completely foreign culture through the eyes of someone who creates a connection between you, the reader, and that culture. If this was an impetus for Thubron's latest book, he succeeded handsomely. Thubron gives the reader the intellectual/factual background to help interpret the different characters he meets and the various ruins or functioning monasteries he visits. His descriptions of the mountains...more

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May 09, 2011 James rated it 1 of 5 stars

The reason that I have to give this book only one star? I didn't finish it. This is a really rare occurrence for me and I usually love travel writing, but I completely lost interest in this one about a third of the way through. The book reads like the author just decided to publish the journal that he kept while on his trip to Tibet. There are no memorable people, no fascinating descriptions of places, and no insightful historical or social commentary. The book is for the most part just stream-o...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Dayanand Prabhu rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is about the author's journey to Kailas, for a very personal reason. I very much disliked this book the first time I read it some months ago. So quite hesitantly I gave it a second chance and found it quite pleasant. Although the words used is not very simple to grasp the writing is from the heart in a very sober tone. The way the journey gets related to his past life and the reason for the journey is in a typical orthodox travelogue fashion. The best part about the book is how the tim...more

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May 15, 2011 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir

There is no doubt that Thubron is a gifted writer; his vocabulary is incredible (David Foster Wallace and Rick Moody, two writers whose vocabularies I envy, often came to mind), and his lengthy descriptions almost always go beyond the visual.

I also appreciated that Thubron delved into the religious and cultural history of Kailas (and the bloody history of Tibet in general). The people of Tibet still suffers under Chinese occupation; most Tibetans live in poverty and are uneducated and are at the...more

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