From Heaven Lake : Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet

by Vikram Seth

`The perfect travel book' New Statesman Hitch-hiking, walking, slogging through rivers and across leech-ridden hills, Vikram Seth travelled through Sinkiang and Tibet to from Heaven Lake to the Himalayas. By breaking away from the reliable routes of organised travel, he transformed his journey into an unusual and intriguing exploration of one of the world's least known areas. 'Vikram Seth is already the best writer of his generation' Daniel Johnson, The Tmes

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, China, India, Travelogue, Memoir, Asia

Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Vikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.

During the course of his doctorate studies at Stanford, he did his field work in China and translated Hindi and Chinese poetry into English. He returned to Delhi via Xinjiang and Tibet which led to a travel narrative From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983) which won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.

The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse (1986) was his first novel describing the experiences of a group of friends who live in California. A Suitable Boy (1993), an epic of Indian life set in the 1950s, got him the WH Smith Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

His poetry includes The Humble Administrator's Garden (1985) and All You Who Sleep Tonight (1990). His Beastly Tales from Here and There (1992) is children's book consisting of ten stories in verse about animals.

In 2005, he published Two Lives, a family memoir written at the suggestion of his mother, which focuses on the lives of his great-uncle (Shanti Behari Seth) and German-Jewish great aunt (Henny Caro) who met in Berlin in the early 1930s while Shanti was a student there and with whom Seth stayed extensively on going to England at age 17 for school. As with From Heaven Lake, Two Lives contains much autobiography.

An unusually forthcoming writer whose published material is replete with un- or thinly-disguised details as to the personal lives of himself and his intimates related in a highly engaging narrative voice, Seth has said that he is somewhat perplexed that his readers often in consequence presume to an unwelcome degree of personal familiarity with him.

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short but very enjoyable travel book chronicling the authors route home from Nanjing in China to Delhi in India. Being a 'poor' student, Seth decides to save some money and also visit some fascinating areas of China on the way home over the summer vacation. Seth travels through the provinces of Gansu, then Qinghai, and on to Tibet before crossing the land border to Nepal.

The travel aspects are great - speaking good Chinese, Seth as a foreigner is able to converse well with most of the locals, and in areas where other languages were required he ended up travelling with those who could translate - this makes this book a little different to many similar books by Westerners, who I don't think always get the same level of cooperation or communication with the Chinese.

What really makes this book though is the beautifully descriptive writing . Seth is really very talented. In a book of 178 pages he tells a thorough and in depth story, he doesn't waste any pages, and almost every page contains a sentence or paragraph to be admired.

I have read A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth - and although immensely long, I enjoyed the descriptive writing. This book really is different - as it is so short - and nothing is wasted.

Four Stars.

[Moushumi Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vikram Seth's “From Heaven Lake: travels in Sinkiang and Tibet” is an unusual travel book. Steering clear of all Lonely Planet Guides and regular travel routes, Seth manages to sketch a picture of China, Tibet, and Nepal from a hungry (quite literally) student traveller’s perspective. He was at that time a student at the Nanjing University. Taking time and money off from the Standford University, Seth stays in China for 2 years. When the time comes for him to return home, he decides on a mega unconventional route. Abandoning all idea of taking a flight out of Xian or Chengdu (cities other than Beijing and Shanghai that we are not familiar with). He decides to take a rather long, hungry, cold rounadabout hitchhiking trip that takes him into the world’s least known areas. The time is the 80s. Seth knows Chinese so well that at one point in time during the trip he had to speak it badly with effort so that people come to his aid.

Seth has been called the “pin-up boy” of Indian Writing in English partly because of his rugged good looks and partly because of “A Suitable Boy.” But in this lesser known work, he shines through both as a writer and a humourist. Unlike other travellers, Seth concentrates on the inner journey as much as the outer.

Seth writes like a song. The flow in uninterrupted and he has amazing control over his words. Each word has been chosen in keeping with what precise emotion he wants to convey. As a friend of mine says, he is a classical writer, no gimmicks.

A litany of places with sing song names like Turfan, Tarim, Changau, Antioch, Yarkhand, Khotan, Urumqui, Kashgar, Kuche, Xian, Liuyuan, Dunhuang, Sichuan, Qinghai, Nanhu, Chengde, Germu, Lanzhou, Xining, Chaidam, Naqu, Anduo, Liaoning, Jokhang, Drepung, Norbulingka, Chengdu, Zhang mu, Dingri, Chamdo, Shigatse, Nilamn, Zhangmu pepper the travelogue but the writescape starts to get less exotic and more familiar by the time Seth reaches Lhasa and then Kathmandu.

Reading Seth is always a pleasure: like sipping iced tea in hot weather. It refreshed my city-weary mind. It’s all the travelling that I can do without getting bee-stung, flea-bitten, and frozen-toed not to mention altitude sickness. There is one phrase that I can’t get out of my head: “delicious calm.” It makes me taste “calm” like some specific dish. Salud to the delicious calm of reading Vikram Seth!

[Ahtims · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vikram Seth took nearly 2 months from China to India hitchhiking all the way across and finally giving go to temptation only in Kathmandu when he took a flight to Delhi. He passed through rural China, Tibet and Nepal ..enjoying most of the time and even the frequent inconveniences caused by natural disasters and human rules and regulations, met many interesting people and finally reached home tired, but jubilant.
I too travelled with him, experienced all this with him, albeit in the comfort of my home. I took only a week to accomplish this.
Read this as a part of weekend theme in IR challenges, and am happy thst I did.
It also fulfils another of my IR challenges - Armchair travel.

Would recommend his book to all those who like to know about new places and are not fortunate enough to travel in person, and who don't mind slow to medium, meandering pace of the book.

[Krishna Sruthi Srivalsan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible book and an even more incredible journey! Vikram Seth, while studying at Nanjing University in China, decided to take a rather unorthodox route on his return to India during his break. His journey starts at Turfan, buried in the Uighur region of western China. And from there, he proceeds further west on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau till he reaches Lhasa, and from there onto Kathmandu and finally Delhi. Remarkable journey, narrated with wit and humour. There are some pages where the writing makes you stop and ponder. For example, he compares India and China, the two Asian giants, and how they both have succeeded and failed in their different ways. He writes about an ugly encounter with a wealthy tourist in Lhasa, and has this to say about it- It is curious how wealth makes some people pleasant, by doing away with worry and petty frustration; and how it makes others abominable.

I loved reading about his travel companions- Sui, always puffing his cigarettes and reading during his breaks, Gyanseng who would burst into a very out-of-tune song every now and then, the sulky Xiao San, and his friend Norbu whom he met at Lhasa. I really liked the fact that the book had a very objective view; not once did I detect an ounce of being judgemental or prejudiced. Qinghai, Turfan, Dunhuang, Germu, Lhasa - these are all vague places on the map, but through the book I felt as if I was visiting these very places, and learning about their people. I especially liked reading about Seth's stay in Lhasa, where he visited the Norbulingka, the Potala Palace,and witnessed a blood curdling ceremony at the Sera monastery. Reading about how he crossed the border from Tibet into Nepal left me astounded. Just walk across the bridge over the Bhotakoshi and that's it. It made me ponder about boundaries and maps and borders and how nature disregards all of them. The book is studded with bits of poetry, very characteristic of Seth, and this makes the book even more special. My favorite is the verse he wrote when they were stuck on the lonely Qinghai-Tibet plateau:


Here we three, cooped, alone,
Tibetan, Indian, Han,
Against a common dawn
Catch what poor sleep we can,
And sleeping drag the same
Sparse air into our lungs,
And dreaming each of home
Sleeptalk in different tongues.

Very highly recommended!

[P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Vikram Seth wanders around Xinjiang and Tibet in this engaging travelogue. His portrait of China in the early 80s is well-rounded and covers economic, social, cultural and political ground realities. I enjoyed his comparisons between India and China, and it is startling to learn how rarely interactions have occurred between these nations historically despite being neighbors. I wonder how different the story would have been in the absence of the Himalayan range that isolates these two vastly different cultures. My book had a new foreword written in 1990, and I'd be interested in what Vikram Seth has to say now. Penguin should probably commission a new foreword. Though I was engaged during my reading, I wished for Seth's travel to be longer and for him to be more introspective. His gaze was more often on the outside, and I enjoyed his digressions into history, art, Indo-Chinese relations, and his own life.

I'd gladly recommend this book to anyone interested in Tibet or travel.

[Mohit Parikh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent travelogue. Unfortunately, I had to abandon this book mid-way as the cafe I was reading it in was closed on the last day of my trip in Himachal Pradesh.
If you have an ebook, please let me know. I'd really appreciate.

[Venkatesh Srinivasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having lost all faith in humanity by reading A Fine Balance, I asked my boyfriend to recommend a book that would restore that faith. Feigning concern and goodwill, he recommended From Heaven Lake; however, I knew that his ulterior motive was to get me to renounce the “obnoxious” levels of planning I do before a trip, and adopt more of his “laid back” and “serendipitous” (aka lazy) style of travel. Begrudgingly, I started reading the book.

The book describes Seth’s two month trip from the desert in Northwestern China through Tibet, and eventually to Delhi in India. This is the first book I’ve read in the travel writing genre, and it is undoubtedly an excellent introduction to this genre. It is an ideal travelogue in every sense: plenty of adventure, excellent descriptions of places that paint detailed mental pictures, necessary background on history and politics, and several glimpses into the lives and stories of China’s diverse citizens, from the Muslim Uighurs of Turfan to the Buddhist Tibeteans of Lhasa. Moreover, these ingredients are combined in perfect quantities, and what ensues is a travelogue that flows like a clear and unperturbed mountain stream.

To pull off this impressive travelogue, Seth must have been both an amazing traveler and an amazing writer. One gets a taste of his curiosity, sense of adventure, people skills, and his knowledge of history, politics, and economics from the book. Seth’s writing is simple, yet deeply observational and descriptive: I experienced seeing the mountain’s pink sunset, hearing the buzz of files in the desert heat, feeling the alpine valley’s moody drizzle, smelling the incense of lamps in the Potala palace, and tasting yak butter tea. (Alas, I had to settle for store-bought chamomile to quench the ensuing craving.)

The hand-drawn map on the book was immensely useful to the map-nerd that I am. Drafts of a few of Seth's photos would've amplified the effects of the book a hundredfold!

For the less traveled, I am certain that this book would spark your wanderlust and get you packing for your next trip. For more seasoned travelers, this book would force you ask yourself why you travel. Is it a means to accumulate more nostalgia for your own self indulgence? Is it a way to listen to peoples’ stories and tell your own? In the end, my reading this book was a win-win: my faith in humanity restored and my boyfriend’s ulterior motive accomplished. 🙄

Rating: 4/5 stars!

[Isabel Khine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I based my university dissertation on this wonderful piece of travel writing, and as some chance encounters in life have given me the opportunity to reflect, readjust, and sit in the joy of the way in which time will give us another chance when only we are willing, I think about how I came across this little book.

I found a worn copy of From Heaven Lake in Voltaire and Rousseau; an institution in Glasgow, with it's endless stacks of pre-loved books for readers of all persuasions, and a cat that I was exceptionally allergic to. At the time of finding this book, I was enamoured - or I might even venture to say, borderline over-interested - with the way in which words track movement and human mobility across place and time. Words are so final and concrete, yet they render human movement possible on a page within the finite borders of paper and full stops.

While the exact minutiae of Seth's journey as detailed in this book are now blurred around the edges to me, I can still feel how he managed to forge a sense of endless mobility through language. We are often so focused in writing on getting to the end, the climax, or the pinnacle, that the ways in which our "characters" get to those spots are ignored. To read an entire memoir on the very modes by which we move to final destinations felt so subversive, and like such an overturning of the capitalistic modes that are goal oriented, output focused, and fixed. Reading such a quietly radical appropriation of a well-worn genre was a necessarily disorienting experience.

Having not been able to travel for three years, I'm even more preoccupied with this idea of how I am going to interact with spaces that hold no sense of permanence or home for me; I must, much like Seth, choose to find respite in movement itself. While there is always peace in stillness, I remember feeling a sense of comfort in the ways that Seth detailed the warm anonymity of being within the in-between of named spaces. Perhaps ironically for a novel, reading From Heaven Lake is an exercise in finding the joy within the liminal and the unnameable; not everything needs a word.

[Rishika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as gift. I am not usually a person who reads travel books. This was my first time doing so. This was also my first Vikram Seth book. Frankly, even though I have heard much praise for Vikram Seth's poetry and prose, this being a travel book I didn't have very high expectations from this book.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how engaging and entertaining this book was. The author had a lot of funny anecdotes right from ending up getting a travel license to Tibet by singing Awaara hun to having his belongings stolen and then fortuitously finding them again. His journey is also interspersed with stories of people he encountered on the way and the accounts of kindness and warmth he received from strangers he was never going to meet again. This book also talks about the tribulations of future generations of Tibetan nationalists. More importantly, the book provides a peek into the transitions of culture and way of life with the geography. I was aware of just Han people before reading this book but now I am aware of minorities Uyghur, Tibetan and Kazakhs. The author describes the melancholic fate of grand and beautiful monasteries in Tibet which now lie in a state of neglect.

The author also mentions trivial but real details such as getting a headache due to high altitude which strike a cord with the readers. In my case, it reminded me of my trip to Arunchal Pradesh where I met a similar fate.

I would recommend this if you want a light read and vicariously want to peek into the way of living of minorities on China. It is quite an interesting travel book.

[Gorab · Rating 3 out of 5]

★★★½☆

This one never felt like reading a Vikram Seth book. The poetic prose was very little. Still quite an enjoyable read for a super adventurous travelogue.
Learnt a few things about the Chinese culture, and their strict documentation requirement. Not sure if the strict guidelines are still in practice after a quarter century.
If a picture could speak thousand words, then the cover speaks up for the beauty of the place.
Would have been better had the inset photo plates were colored and glossy instead of black and white regular print.

This one has seeded the curiosity to read more travelogues around Tibet and explore more about Dalai Lama :)

[Mer · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was my textbook for my advanced English literature classes and my teacher insisted that we broaden our horizons from just classic literature. I would probably have enjoyed it more if it wasn't a textbook and I had to scour through every bit of it.

[Gunjan Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book for two reasons – it’s a travelogue (very enticing in the middle of a lockdown) and for its author, Vikram Seth. In 1982, Seth was in China performing field research for his doctoral thesis in economics from Stanford. During the Summer Break, he decides to travel back to India by road from Nanjing, in the eastern province, to Delhi crossing rural China, Uyghur-dominated Xinjiang, Tibet and Nepal. He hitchhikes his way taking over two months, not because #YOLO and carpe diem (these are pre internet day), but because he is a cash strapped student. What comes out of it is a travelogue from the logs he maintained in the trip. But perhaps because it was not intended to be a travelogue that would be mass marketed (unlike travel guides), it is a refreshingly unadulterated account. Seth describes the common and the uncommon equally well – the numerous oasis towns and the eternal peaks of Himalayas, the affable truck driver and the Ambassador, the burnt down hut and The Potala Palace of Lhasa, he observes them all and occasionally makes a rhyming poem out of it. The book also enlightens the readers in many ways. It is a sneak-peek into life in post-Cultural revolution communist China of 1980s – portraits of Mao, the omnipresent blue uniforms, regulated markets, domination of majority and the somewhat familiar (to Indians) bureaucracy. Seth tries to put together the macroeconomics of his textbooks and the micro from what he notices. He paints the socio-political vista of a demographically varied China – the Han, the Uyghurs and the Tibetans in the backdrop of population boom and land crunch. There are poignant personal encounters when locals invite him with food, warmth and stories of government atrocities. He compares it with India and there are rare musings about his own life. But all this doesn’t drain the enjoyment and excitement. At points you will find yourself rooting for the traveler as he tries to flag another truck and counts with dread the days left before his Visa expires and he is stuck in a foreign land. Finally, he beats the travails and crosses the border.

[dely · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

E' il racconto del viaggio in autostop che Vikram Seth intraprende per andare dalla Cina in India attraversando il Tibet e il Nepal.
Non avendo abbastanza soldi per un biglietto aereo e dopo aver ricevuto il visto per andare in Tibet (rarissimo da ottenere negli anni '80) decide di fare un viaggio più avventuroso.
Dalla Cina orientale alla Cina occidentale viaggia in treno ma poi inizia a cercare passaggi in camion che trasportano merci in Tibet. Deve affrontare la burocrazia cinese, torrenti che straripano per le forti piogge e che rendono le strade impraticabili e che spazzano via anche quei pochi ponti che ci sono per attraversare i fiumi.
Durante il viaggio ci racconta dell'ospitalità cinese e della loro onesta gentilezza, ci descrive i paesaggi partendo dal deserto grigio della Cina nord-occidentale fino ad arrivare ai colori del Tibet e del Nepal. Ci parla anche delle condizioni politiche ed economiche della Cina facendo paragoni con la sua patria, l'India, ed esprime anche i suoi pensieri su Mao e la religione.
Libro interessante che non annoia mai e consigliato a chi ama leggere di culture orientali senza scendere nella pedanteria di dettagli troppo prolissi; se invece state cercando un libro che approfondisce i vari argomenti trattati, questo non è il libro che fa per voi.

[Tina Tamman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books have this capacity to surprise me. I had fairly low expectations of this book, and it was surprisingly good. Surprisingly because it had been languishing on my bookshelf for a long time and I only picked it up because it was a thin volume and I was going on a train; didn't want to carry much. Surprisingly also because I know what most travel books are like: they tell you where the author has been and what he/she has seen. And I've been to Xinjiang (variant of Sinkiang and this spelling also appears in the book), so what was Vikram Seth going to tell me that I didn't know? Admittedly, I haven't been to Tibet.
However, From Heaven Lake is not your usual travelogue; it deals with much more than just one specific journey; it provides a picture of China in 1981. If you think this dates it, think again. History and knowing how things used to be is important for understanding what happens today.
Vikram Seth writes beautifully; he has an observant eye and a feeling heart. And he is Indian, a foreigner in China.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fairly short account started me thinking about what makes a good travel book. The author was studying in China and finagled permission to travel home to India via Tibet. He comes across as curious, observant, and resourceful, and his account is well written, but somehow the book (and trip) were disappointing. The author’s time in Tibet was relatively brief and involved only limited interaction with anyone besides the Tibetan truck driver who took him most of the way. I kept thinking it would make a better magazine article than a book.

“Nevertheless, by mid-morning, the river is littered with trucks, wallowing like hippopotami in various stages of submersion; and yet more trucks try to make it through. The crowd enjoys this. When a truck gets stuck, they cheer. When a truck gets through, they cheer."

“In this desert night the Milky Way is brilliantly clear. It strikes me how descriptive of its meandering course is its Chinese name, the Silver River.”

[Akash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have great fascination for travel books, and for the breathtaking barrenness of Central Asia. Wasn't a wonder that i couldn't put this book down. My only crib about the book is that it could have dwelled a bit more on the history and culture of Tibet. But as a young, and somewhat accidental traveler, it can be overlooked.
Dare i say, the book is timeless. For someone making this journey today, it would be similar. The infrastructure and roads would have undergone a drastic change. But the people would be where they are. A must read.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real gem of a travel book that I somehow overlooked until now.

My own trip to Tibet in 1998 was nowhere near as ambitious or arduous as this. Makes me a little jealous that I never learned Mandarin well enough to ride as a passenger in these Chinese trucks that Seth takes throughout the journey.

Lyrical and fast moving - I loved this one.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on travelling in china. I love it particularly because its an Indian view on china which is so different to any other take on travelling there. Beautifully written too as you'd expect from Vikram Seth.

[Yigal Zur · Rating 4 out of 5]

l loved this thin travel book

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is the best way to experience another culture? Learn their language and then promptly hitch hike your way across. This is precisely what Vikram Seth has chances upon. It is a gem of a travelogue, and what has won my admiration is that he is a Hindu pilgrim. Vikram captures the emotions of his friendship with the Chinese people, especially the tension between the majority Han and minority Uighars, mogols and the Tibetans. The travel abroad a truck as it crisscrosses across Sinkiang and Tibet brings about a constant stream of challenges, from police checks, bartering to frequent unwarranted stops when the truck gets stuck in mud. These occurrences produce the best phrases out of the author like....
'A mind clouded with rage is fearsome even to itself.' I agree with Vikram's analysis in the end though when he compares India with China and the way both have progressed under different system of governance. According to his observation if you are dirt poor than you are better off born in China as compared to India. On the other hand if you are on the upper end of the poverty scale, than India offers a better prospect for future.

[Sukhada · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have read in 2014. Vikram Seth is such an amazing writer yet one of the most under-read writers of today. This book is a beautiful account of his hitchhiking experience through China on his way back home to India. One of my favorite persons from the book is a Chinese truck driver named Sui, he was a delight throughout and so was his other companion in the truck, Ginseng, who for the most part is forgotten because he rarely utters a word except for his occasional singing.

It's a rare experience to read a beautiful travelogue and experience the length and breadth of traveling through China. It has exquisite descriptions of the Turfan underground water system, the deserts of Nunhan, Heaven lake and it's surreal surroundings, the yaks near the Tangula Range (they were so pretty), the black and silver landscapes of Tibet turning into green and blue. Be sure to look up images of every place mentioned in the book while reading because that helps complete the experience.

[Ensiform · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a graduate student in Nanjing University, Seth used his vacation to hitchhike home to Delhi via Tibet. The result is a wonderful book, full of witty observations, good, clear prose and profound meditations on India and China. It’s a fresh and interesting perspective to this American reader: there is very little comment on the lack of cleanliness or crowded conditions, as travelers in the West often harp about. Also, Seth is happy to give the Chinese political system the benefit of the doubt: where an American traveler assumes the flaws and reports the good, Seth assumes that China works and treats the flaws as unavoidable as with any system. He is as angered by the bureaucracy as Western travelers are, but at least he made it to Tibet. His descriptions of that region are revealing and hopeful: the people seem happy when he talk to them, but great evils are in the very recent past, and they have not forgotten. A rich, fascinating book.

[Pradeep Chandkiran · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Heaven Lake was an impulsive pick.

From Heaven Lake is different from page one. Very few travelog'ers can take you along like Seth does, on his impulsive, stubborn and ambitious journey as he hitch-hikes his way from Heaven lake (in China) to Tibet, then Nepal and finally home, Delhi. The fast paced narrative (I say this because there are often twists in the plot which could have made for a good piece of fiction) is rich with metaphors, taking you on a cultural tour through rural China, often leaving you with a feeling of surrealism, as you stand by the road-side when his truck breaks down in the middle of a road that barely exists or as you hold your breath, guessing how he would get to Nepal with all the rains and washed away roads.

And whats the best part about the book? While he expresses his opinion on various things Chinese, both political and cultural, at no point of time does it turn preachy or philosophical!

[Utkarsh Ruhela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up in north India close to the Himalayas, Tibet has always fascinated me. The mind can't stop wondering what's beyond those lofty ice-cones. Even after scouring through multiple Wikipedia pages, spending hours on topography maps of the region, the place stays as elusive. With this travelogue, Seth brings much-needed light onto Tibet (culturally, politically). His charming cultural references along with sporadic couplets he's well known for do not disappoint. This book also gives an insight into Seth's own personality. Albeit writing about himself and his journey, the book sounds wholely genuine.

[Vamsi Krishna KV · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vikram Seth always gave serious life goals. With this book, even more so!

[Sandeep · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Heaven Lake - Vikram Seth
Rating 4.25/5

Vikram Seth is one of my favorite authors. Ironic is that, despite being favorite, I haven't managed to read any of his books (except poetry) to completion. So out of sheer impulse I chose to read this book. Seth's works I feel, are way ahead of their time and over here it's his journey which is ahead of time. Traveling to India from China via Tibet, Nepal, Seth weaves a delightful picture comprising of landscapes, monuments, people, interactions, travel - the period being early 1980's.

Seth covers multiple regions within China - all while he manages to travel in a group or travel solo, hitch hiking - traveling in a truck. What I really like about the book is the near perfect balance which, Seth is able to strike with many aspects of his writing. He neither overdoes appreciation nor criticism. There is an ever presence of rich description, be it of the landscape, monuments or the mountain or the human interactions. The interaction with locals (in Chinese) bring about the warmth and hospitality which the locals have to offer. This also yields more details about the culture, food habits and nature of their occupations.

I feel - Seth is able to bring to standstill, a time in history where the world was much more exciting place to be. These days its easy on the internet to get pictures of places - travel virtually through videos but this book is about a different era. Bring in all the technological advancement, we have lost the spirit or a sense of adventure. This book has that sense of adventure, a sense of not knowing what is in store tomorrow. The joy of arriving in Lhasa, visiting Potala, Norbulingka, visiting Heaven Lake, getting a lift in a truck, getting stuck in cold by the roadside, strangers offering tea - these are some of the many things which keep the reader very content and hooked up to the book.

Would it be possible today for an outsider to travel with an individual permit across Autonomous China without an exit route approved? I am not really sure. Yet Seth, back all those years made it possible. How did Seth manage to do it with less of a technology, with maps, no satellite navigation? I suppose the old school way - with grit and determination - seeking thrill and adventure!

The map at the book beginning is way too small, though the travel route taken by Seth is marked, its very tough for me to remember the names of the places, equally difficult is to remember which place is hills versus plains - (may be need to check the legend), towns versus village.

But overall - a very eventful read.

Cheers,

[Tarinee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of late I have not read many books ..but I have purchased a lot.I have often tried to justify it with lack of time but then I am guilty of going for binge watching few series on all those OTT platforms ,of most of which I enjoy a subscription or have borrowed one from friends .So to be honest , of late I have become moody with picking books .I will crave for a comedy genre ,,only to read a few chapters and on the next day craving for a travelogue and the very next day a fantasy novel by Victoria Schwab. All for a couple of chapters only.

So , in one such, of late very frequent, moody days of mine, as I was aimlessly browsing though the library ,only to be satisfied by all range of book covers and book names and day dreaming reading them all before I complete my training here ,,,or questioning my ability to read at least a few of those heavy political hardbound literature , this training institute proudly displays ,I came across a little paperback ,,a dusky cover with stains of brown on pages ..to my taste a book that has aged well .So the next step was inevitable..I picked it up and smelled it as I moved all the pages with one swift mastered maneuver of my thumb while caressing the spine of the book as one long separated paramour .

well that's it.It ended there .Because like old days, I have lost the power or uncontrollable craving to start reading that book,then and there , inclined against the semi fragile glass shelves of the library .But in one inspired moment of intuition, I issued it, put it on my book rack and forgot about it for a month only to find it on one such mood swing cravings I discussed above.

But this time , something different happened .I was into the first couple of chapters, then few more and then ...then the last page of the book ..all in one sitting ...A couple of years ago finishing a book was normal and going for DND was the exception .But that was a time when Fc Barcelona was wining LA Liga for fun.So it was really satisfying when I could finish this in one go.

May be it was the book

or, may be I have completed all notable series across all OTT platforms.

May be the 19 odd now brownish black n white pictures are good enough to hold my attention.

Or , may be it was the old me

may be it was the author's forward to the 1990 edition with that beautiful short poem at the end which I truly intend to copy in one of the assignments in my training.

Or may be it was because Ganga Dhaba and General store was close last night for me to put down this book and escape into the endless discussion of politics ,exam ,Delhi ,our x- jobs ,foods,Himalayas and our hostel rooms, for the night .

or, may be..... just may be the book was really good,the story was really captivating and calling for that little wonder lust within all of us to go on a armchair trip.

So to sum it up

May be you should read this
or ,may be I am just lying with my 4.21367 stars for this book.

[Kartik Gulati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got a chance to undertake a leisure read after a really long time and this one turned out to be a good choice for this opportunity. The book is a reflective travelogue of a student travelling from China to India through Tibet and Nepal, and while it will not teach you in detail about the historical contexts of these areas it will expose you to some very human relationships between people from different cultures, within communities who have been at war for decades, and between people who need not help each other. You will smile at how movies permeate language barriers and just how knowing an obscure reference to a song can sometimes help create bonds between people who do not understand each other. As someone who has undertaken a few uncomfortable journeys I can resonate with the sense of adventure and "gotta find a way" attitude that Seth displays in the book. Highly recommended for anyone looking for that extra kick up the butt to leave their scheduled lives for a short adventure.

[Anurasika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flute music always does this to me: it is at once the most universal and most particular of sounds. There is no culture that does not have its flute -- the reed neh, the recorder, the Japanese shakuhachi, the deep bansuri of Hindustani classical music, the clear or breathy flutes of South America, the high-pitched Chinese flutes. Each has its specific fingering and compass. It weaves its own associations. Yet to hear any flute is, its seems to be, to be drawn into the commonalty of all mankind, to be moved by music closest in its phrases and sentences to the human voice. Its motive force too is living breath: it too needs to pause and breathe before it can go on.
(p 176)

'It is a misunderstanding, I am afraid. The Chinese people and the Japanese people are very friendly towards each other' from Everday Language for Hotel Personnel - 1000 English Sentences
(p 134-135)

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in the long list of travel accounts that I want to read before heading off on my trip. I enjoyed Vikram Seth's 'A Suitable Boy' and fully expected to enjoy this account of his travels through Xinjiang and Tibet in the early 1980s. His account was fairly dry in places but it was interspersed with delightful humour and interesting insights. I especially enjoyed Seth's description of the people he met and the warmth and hospitality he received on his journey. He does spend an inordinate amount of time on mundane aspects of his journey: his dietry habits, where he slept and trucks breaking down etc but it provides an interesting insight into the difficulties he and those living in Xinjiang and Tibet faced on a day to day basis.