What do you think?
Rate this book
Shangrila: die Suche nach dem letzten Paradies
Tibet, am östlichen Ende des Himalaya: Hier liegt die tiefste Schlucht der Welt – eingegraben zwischen zwei Siebentausendern. Der Canyon ist eines der letzten Rätsel der Geographen, denn irgendwo muß ein riesiger Wasserfall sein, anders läßt sich der Höhenunterschied im Flußverlauf nicht erklären. Doch warum ist er in keiner Karte verzeichnet? Handelt es sich etwa um das legendäre Shangrila, den Sehnsuchtsort von Abenteurern und Gläubigen? Nach einem dramatischen Wettlauf von internationalen Entdeckerteams steht der Sieger fest, doch sein Geheimnis gibt das heilige Naturparadies noch lange nicht jedem preis.
296 pages, Paperback
First published December 24, 2002
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 12, 2022
It seemed like the sort of book I'd like. And the first part certainly reinforced my expectations. In it, Mcrae gives a fairly thorough and interesting account of the explorers who went in search of the hidden falls of Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet. That and a search for a "ten mile gap" where no Westerner had been before made for good reading. So good was it, in fact, I took out my phone and started looking into the people, plants, and animals mentioned in that first section. Rewarding it was.
Then Michael Mcrae shifted gears in the second and third parts of the Siege. A sometime writer for National Geographic, Mcrae's latter chapters sound like little more than an extended article for the magazine. The restraint and appropriate distance that made the first part intriguing and informative gave way to gushing over two contemporary explorers of the gorge, Ian Baker and Hamid Sardar. Many quotes and thoughts followed that reflected a half-baked Euro-American view of Buddhism. (This is something I encounter quite a bit of where I live. There is no shortage of book trained Buddhists from America and Europe deplaning in Bangkok with the blessing of their guru back home and who can't wait to show the locals how Buddhism is really done and how they've got it all wrong.) These pages are full of trite cliche and cheap attempts at plugging in discount mysticism into things--yep, there might be a yeti out there!
Mcrae himself is an explorer and accompanied Baker and Sardar on some trips to the region. Alas he also appears to be something of a Baker-Sardar groupie, lapping up everything they say, especially Baker, as gospel truth. Tales of bickering about who discovered what first come interspaced with interjections of "wisdom" denouncing ego and the spoiling of man's unity with nature. Yeah, I've heard it all before. With better explanations, more interesting stories, and fewer would-be gurus out to advertise their adventure businesses.
So what happens at the end? Nature gets mad and spoils the author's and Sardar's journey to the falls to achieve spiritual "cleansing." This ends up being a book that made me less interested in its subject than I had been at the beginning.
Then Michael Mcrae shifted gears in the second and third parts of the Siege. A sometime writer for National Geographic, Mcrae's latter chapters sound like little more than an extended article for the magazine. The restraint and appropriate distance that made the first part intriguing and informative gave way to gushing over two contemporary explorers of the gorge, Ian Baker and Hamid Sardar. Many quotes and thoughts followed that reflected a half-baked Euro-American view of Buddhism. (This is something I encounter quite a bit of where I live. There is no shortage of book trained Buddhists from America and Europe deplaning in Bangkok with the blessing of their guru back home and who can't wait to show the locals how Buddhism is really done and how they've got it all wrong.) These pages are full of trite cliche and cheap attempts at plugging in discount mysticism into things--yep, there might be a yeti out there!
Mcrae himself is an explorer and accompanied Baker and Sardar on some trips to the region. Alas he also appears to be something of a Baker-Sardar groupie, lapping up everything they say, especially Baker, as gospel truth. Tales of bickering about who discovered what first come interspaced with interjections of "wisdom" denouncing ego and the spoiling of man's unity with nature. Yeah, I've heard it all before. With better explanations, more interesting stories, and fewer would-be gurus out to advertise their adventure businesses.
So what happens at the end? Nature gets mad and spoils the author's and Sardar's journey to the falls to achieve spiritual "cleansing." This ends up being a book that made me less interested in its subject than I had been at the beginning.
December 17, 2015
I enjoyed the first half of the book, a history of exploration in the gorge, much more than the second half which just got rather too 'spiritual' for my personal tastes. Still an enjoyable read and plenty to keep you interested.
June 4, 2016
The first section was fantastic with the history of the exploration of Tibet. Very interesting and well written. It went down hill from there with all of the mystical, woo-woo junk.
September 21, 2018
It was my first book about explorers and there travels, i could have read it cover to cover with jazz and a joint .
Michael travels and tells tales of adventure in late-20th century TIBET -
the karma-fueled Harvard geographer Hamid sardar who spent 3 month in a cave meditating and getting ready spiritually to get to the forbidden hidden world in Tibet and find mysterious waterfalls accompanied by talented Ian baker from Oxford- DID WHAT NO OTHER HUMAN BEING HAD DONE BEFORE.
Though spirituality had little to do with subsequent expeditions it was just as required as everything else including hard to get permits in the changing TIBET which was fast integrating into Mainland.
It also have a few chapters on how dangerous what we now call northeast India was with fierce tribes and deep valleys it was one of the last places left untouched by modern world .
Michael travels and tells tales of adventure in late-20th century TIBET -
the karma-fueled Harvard geographer Hamid sardar who spent 3 month in a cave meditating and getting ready spiritually to get to the forbidden hidden world in Tibet and find mysterious waterfalls accompanied by talented Ian baker from Oxford- DID WHAT NO OTHER HUMAN BEING HAD DONE BEFORE.
Though spirituality had little to do with subsequent expeditions it was just as required as everything else including hard to get permits in the changing TIBET which was fast integrating into Mainland.
It also have a few chapters on how dangerous what we now call northeast India was with fierce tribes and deep valleys it was one of the last places left untouched by modern world .
January 23, 2020
3,5/5
December 3, 2010
So maybe, in spite of Three Dog Night's jangly assurances, everyone isn't always so lucky and so kind on the road to Shambala. Journalist Michael McRae shows that the leeches, murderous tribes, floods, swirling rapids, wicked slopes, torrential rains--not to mention some highly competitive, overweening egos--can make the road to this earthly paradise (sometimes called Shangri-La and often identified with Tibet's Tsangpo Gorge) downright nasty.
These physical hindrances have hampered all but a few intrepid explorers, adventurers, and spiritual refugees from submitting themselves to this hell in order to attempt to discover a bit of heaven on earth tucked away in the Tsangpo's innermost canyons. McRae's Siege (2002) recounts Western attempts to trace the full length of the Gorge and fully explain its sudden drop from the Tibetan plateau to the lowlands of India. And it also records modern explorers' fascination with the Gorge as a sacred place, a possible portal to Shangri-La. Like the Tsangpo's tortuous course, McRae's narrative can take some pretty unexpected and bizarre turns as he darts between the experiences of the spies, plant hunters, adventure trekkers, and solo spiritual pilgrims who have gone to the Gorge hoping to unlock its physical or spiritual mysteries. Highlights include hunting for rare primroses and poppies with Frank Kingdon-Ward, watching a 12-year-old low-land boy from Minneapolis out hike a Mt Everest summiteer, and surfing rhododendrons down the steep walls of the Gorge to reach a hidden waterfall. There's plenty of Tibetan Buddhist lore here, too, that for the first time provides a Western audience with a cultural and religious context for the Tsangpo Gorge. And, of course, George Schaller makes a cameo appearance.
The Gorge is a very difficult environment that has attracted some strong and interesting personalities. The fun of the book comes as much from learning about the explorers, their beliefs, and their expectations as about the Gorge itself.
These physical hindrances have hampered all but a few intrepid explorers, adventurers, and spiritual refugees from submitting themselves to this hell in order to attempt to discover a bit of heaven on earth tucked away in the Tsangpo's innermost canyons. McRae's Siege (2002) recounts Western attempts to trace the full length of the Gorge and fully explain its sudden drop from the Tibetan plateau to the lowlands of India. And it also records modern explorers' fascination with the Gorge as a sacred place, a possible portal to Shangri-La. Like the Tsangpo's tortuous course, McRae's narrative can take some pretty unexpected and bizarre turns as he darts between the experiences of the spies, plant hunters, adventure trekkers, and solo spiritual pilgrims who have gone to the Gorge hoping to unlock its physical or spiritual mysteries. Highlights include hunting for rare primroses and poppies with Frank Kingdon-Ward, watching a 12-year-old low-land boy from Minneapolis out hike a Mt Everest summiteer, and surfing rhododendrons down the steep walls of the Gorge to reach a hidden waterfall. There's plenty of Tibetan Buddhist lore here, too, that for the first time provides a Western audience with a cultural and religious context for the Tsangpo Gorge. And, of course, George Schaller makes a cameo appearance.
The Gorge is a very difficult environment that has attracted some strong and interesting personalities. The fun of the book comes as much from learning about the explorers, their beliefs, and their expectations as about the Gorge itself.
June 30, 2014
Good, straightforward travel/exploration narrative. More of a 3.5 than a 3.
Mcrae has a great handle on the not-particularly-linear story of the Tsangpo Gorge, in Tibet, considered to be "the real-life Shangri-La." He fills in the historical context of Westerners seeking out the Gorge & discoveries along the Tsangpo River, and rounds it out with stories of modern adventurers seeking to fill in blank spots on the map.
That Mcrae is self-aware around the story's fluid timeline helps, but I still had some trouble following the exact chronology of modern exploration of the Gorge. Part of this is that, to tell an even-handed story, Mcrae has to include a large cast of characters, many of whom now stake different claims to modern "discoveries" regarding the Gorge's geography & publicity. Still, while the sections of the book on the slopes & jungles around Tsangpo Gorge are by far its most lively & the best-written, they can become unfocused.
Recommended for anyone who likes travel writing, especially with a bent towards modern exploration & how geopolitics affect the future of sacred natural spaces.
Mcrae has a great handle on the not-particularly-linear story of the Tsangpo Gorge, in Tibet, considered to be "the real-life Shangri-La." He fills in the historical context of Westerners seeking out the Gorge & discoveries along the Tsangpo River, and rounds it out with stories of modern adventurers seeking to fill in blank spots on the map.
That Mcrae is self-aware around the story's fluid timeline helps, but I still had some trouble following the exact chronology of modern exploration of the Gorge. Part of this is that, to tell an even-handed story, Mcrae has to include a large cast of characters, many of whom now stake different claims to modern "discoveries" regarding the Gorge's geography & publicity. Still, while the sections of the book on the slopes & jungles around Tsangpo Gorge are by far its most lively & the best-written, they can become unfocused.
Recommended for anyone who likes travel writing, especially with a bent towards modern exploration & how geopolitics affect the future of sacred natural spaces.
October 24, 2015
A very good read. A very nicely written chronicle about the great adventures and explorations in the remote tsangpo gorge region lying in the south eastern Tibet. Nicely put all kinds of journeys including the recent explorations by the adventurers and Tibetan Buddhists.
"A century and half ago, geographers were as puzzled about what happened to the Tsangpo after it left the Tibetan plateau.....
did it fed the Brahmaputra or did it flow into any of the half a dozen other rivers that spill down from Tibet and and crash through the jungles east of the Himalayas in Burma and China. Within about two hundred miles are the Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Irrawaddy, and Dihang, Dibang and Lohit." All the revers are were not properly charted and rush through subtropical forests with a rich diversity of flora and fauna, from orchids to red pandas, and in the lower Tsangpo gorge, the last of Tibet's tigers believed to be numbered fewer than twenty.
"A century and half ago, geographers were as puzzled about what happened to the Tsangpo after it left the Tibetan plateau.....
did it fed the Brahmaputra or did it flow into any of the half a dozen other rivers that spill down from Tibet and and crash through the jungles east of the Himalayas in Burma and China. Within about two hundred miles are the Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Irrawaddy, and Dihang, Dibang and Lohit." All the revers are were not properly charted and rush through subtropical forests with a rich diversity of flora and fauna, from orchids to red pandas, and in the lower Tsangpo gorge, the last of Tibet's tigers believed to be numbered fewer than twenty.
November 29, 2012
Traveling around the world makes me wish it was the 1800s and there were still unmapped places...so this story of a crazy gorge and the people searching it for deep buddhist reasons and insane adventure travel was quite intriguing. I loved thinking about how place is such a psychological phenomenon apart from mere topography, and about places still forbidding and sacred. The narrative itself felt a little disjointed and academic, but worth a read if you're interested in Tibet or Buddhism or an avid National Geographic reader!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews