Among the Tibetans

by Isabella Lucy Bird

Isabella Bird writes of her adventures in a manner that captivates her readers Isabella L Bird (1831 - 1904) was a 19th century British traveler and writer. Since her father was a Church of England priest the family moved many times during her childhood. Bird traveled to Colorado when she heard the air was very healthy. She covered the 800 miles on horseback riding like a man and not sidesaddle. Among The Tibetans begins "The Vale of Kashmir is too well known to require description. It is the 'happy hunting-ground' of the Anglo-Indian sportsman and tourist, the resort of artists and invalids, the home of pashm shawls and exquisitely embroidered fabrics, and the land of Lalla Rookh. Its inhabitants, chiefly Moslems, infamously governed by Hindus, are a feeble race, attracting little interest, valuable to travellers as 'coolies' or porters, and repulsive to them from the mingled cunning and obsequiousness which have been fostered by ages of oppression. But even for them there is the dawn of hope, for the Church Missionary Society has a strong medical and educational mission at the capital, a hospital and dispensary under the charge of a lady M.D. have been opened for women, and a capable and upright 'settlement officer, ' lent by the Indian Government, is investigating the iniquitous land arrangements with a view to a just settlement."

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History, Asia, India, China, Victorian

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1894

About the author

Isabella Lucy Bird Bishop (October 15, 1831 – October 7, 1904) was a nineteenth-century English traveller, writer, and a natural historian.

Works:
* The Englishwoman in America (1856)
* Pen and Pencil Sketches Among The Outer Hebrides (published in The Leisure Hour) (1866)
* The Hawaiian Archipelago (1875)
* The Two Atlantics (published in The Leisure Hour) (1876)
* Australia Felix: Impressions of Victoria and Melbourne (published in The Leisure Hour) (1877)
* A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879)
* Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880)
* Sketches In The Malay Peninsula (published in The Leisure Hour) (1883)
* The Golden Chersonese and the way Thither (1883)
* A Pilgrimage To Sinai (published in The Leisure Hour) (1886)
* Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan (1891)
* Among the Tibetans (1894)
* Korea and her Neighbours (1898)
* The Yangtze Valley and Beyond (1899)
* Chinese Pictures (1900)
* Notes on Morocco (published in the Monthly Review) (1901)

Reviews

[Bill on GR Sabbatical · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting but choppy account of English explorer and writer Isabella Lucy Bird's journey north from Srinigar, in the Kashmir Valley of India to Ladakh, near Tibet, on an 1888 trip to India, Persia, Kurdistan, and Turkey. She seems hardly to notice the discomforts of the arduous travel conditions and is quite courageous in the face of frequent life-threatening danger, downplaying a broken rib suffered while under her horse, which was swept away and drowned while crossing the main channel of the Shayok River. There are few accounts of life at this place and time available in English and Bird has an eye for nature, architecture, and culture that can be compelling reading. However, she views many of the local people she encounters through a lens of Victorian racism, arrogance, and contempt that is offensive and distracting.

[Kavita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isabella Bird was a Victorian explorer and author, and has written travelogues based on her travels around the world, from Korea to the US. Since she travelled in the second half of the 19th century, the books are very intriguing from a historical perspective, though they have the usual problems that the century itself had.

Among the Tibetans is Bird's account of her travels from Kashmir, India to Tibet. She describes the changes in landscape and culture and people as she gradually proceeds with her journey. It is interesting that she preferred Tibet to India, despite the obvious colonised attitude of the latter, or maybe because of it?

It was rather jarring to hear Ladakh called 'Lesser Tibet' or 'Lower Tibet', terms I have never heard of before. You realise politics and international geopolitics was a totally different beast at the time! People like Bird could also just sashay into countries, make demands of the local population, and make drama. And now they can't to the same extent. It's rather satisfying.

As always with British explorers, there was the inevitable racism. She literally describes Tibetans as ugly, short, squat, yellow-skinned, flat-nosed, oblique-eyed, uncouth-looking people!!! 😮 But also claims she has developed a great opinion of them! I mean, maybe by this point, they don't want your good opinion? At the same time, it was grotesquely hilarious how she describes her horse. He was a beautiful creature, Badakshani breed, of Arab blood, a silver-grey, as light as a greyhound and as strong as a cart horse. She goes on to praise his intelligence and cleverness and sense of humour. But despite these couple of examples, I must admit that Bird is very mild and mostly respectful of the local population and more importantly, does not lie unlike Mary Kingsley, who told lie after lie in order to defame local tribes in her Africa book.

Bird stays away from the power play topics but is partial to the local missionary. She bemoans that the Tibetans do not adopt Christianity but also admires the missionary who seems to be respectful of the locals. I don't think missionaries are ever actually respectful but at least, these ones seem to have behaved well.

There are minute descriptions of the architecture, rituals, and people. This was very interesting and Bird had a knack for bringing out the uniqueness of the culture. The writing was a little laborious as older texts tend to be, but does not take away from the enjoyment of discovering new lands and new cultures from a historical perspective.

[First Second Books]

I already adored "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" and this one is even crazier than that one. Lucy is an incredibly strong writer and/but obviously writing for herself first and foremost. I was amused that she begins this book with an accounting of the recent colonial history of Southeast Asia so brief and careless as to be nearly offensive before launching into a several-pages-long paean to the wonderful horse she bought and traveled with on her journey.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine travelling back in time, to 1890 or thereabouts, and accompanying a 60-year-old Victorian lady on her travels in Tibet. A lady famous for travelling on her own and riding 'frontwards' instead of using a lady saddle, and who seems utterly fearless when it comes to traversing mountain passes and fierce rivers. Bizarrely, this woman was a very sickly child, and she still falls ill whenever she spends any amount of time back home in Scotland. Her books were usually compiled from the letters she wrote to her sister, and reading them is an amazing experience, but occasionally you are shocked by the apparent lack of feeling when people and animals drown during river crossings - these incidents are dismissed in one sentence. The same is the case when servants and animals collapse with "pass-poison", the animals bleeding from their eyes, nose and ears... Watching horses "swimming desperately for their lives" is referred to as "a splendid sight". How times have changed. Still, her descriptions of the people (often referred to as ugly, another indicator of how sentiments have changed), the nature, the architecture, life in the monasteries, the caravans, the weather ("In crossing a stretch of white sand the solar heat was so fierce that our European skins were blistered through our clothing."), the food, the medicine ("Rubbing with butter is their great panacea."), the missionaries, the culture ("It was not music, but it was sublime."), even the animals are so vivid that it all springs to life before your inner eye. "At Lachalang, at a height of over 15,000 feet, I noted a solar temperature of 152 degrees, only 35 degrees below the boiling point of water in the same region, which is about 187 degrees." These are not the words of some frail, elderly lady! In fact, in 1892, Isabella L. Bird was the first woman to be inducted into the Royal Geographic Society. Through her popular books, she became a household name - and rightfully so. If you have even a fleeting interest in travel accounts from the past, you should definitely read this book. As soon as I am done writing this review, I will look up her other books and add them to my 'to read' list. However, you should note that if you download this book from Project Gutenberg, as I did, you will miss out on all of Isabella's (that's right, we're on first name terms now) wonderful drawings. So download the PDF as well (the book is only 72 pages long, so it is not a particularly big file) so you can fully enjoy those too.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read here

Opening: The Vale of Kashmir is too well known to require description. It is the 'happy hunting-ground' of the Anglo-Indian sportsman and tourist, the resort of artists and invalids, the home of pashm shawls and exquisitely embroidered fabrics, and the land of Lalla Rookh. Its inhabitants, chiefly Moslems, infamously governed by Hindus, are a feeble race, attracting little interest, valuable to travellers as 'coolies' or porters, and repulsive to them from the mingled cunning and obsequiousness which have been fostered by ages of oppression. But even for them there is the dawn of hope, for the Church Missionary Society has a strong medical and educational mission at the capital, a hospital and dispensary under the charge of a lady M.D. have been opened for women, and a capable and upright 'settlement officer,' lent by the Indian Government, is investigating the iniquitous land arrangements with a view to a just settlement.

I went with the Librivox recording(03:08 hours):

Isabella L. BIRD (1831 - 1904): English traveller, writer and natural historian. She was travelling in the Far East alone at a time when such endeavours were risky and dangerous even for men and large, better equipped parties.

In "Among the Tibetans", Bird describes her tour through Tibet with her usual keen eye: From descriptions of the landscape and flora to the manners, customs and religion of the local people we get a fascinating account of a world long past.

1. The Start
2. Shergol and Lea
3. Nubra
4. Manners and Customs
5. Climate and Natural Features

Beautifully written.
Colonial in outlook with attendant inherent racism and the biases of those Victorian times.
Charmingly read by Availle.

[Malola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow... Just wow...

This woman is clearly a trailblazer. Like damn!
She had a good eye for detail. There were very poignant sociological remarks and excellent descriptions of the natural scenery. (No wonder why she was the first woman to be accepted as a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.)
Her description of her accident/problem with the current/river... WOW.

This book is for people who are into wilderness/outdoors literature and maybe those who care about intrepid women.

[Diāna · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Among the Tibetians” is a Victorian traveller diary on landscapes, culture, religion, people and circumstances of isolation of Tibet. Unfortunately much has been lost, but Lucy has greatly revealed the characteristics and culture the Land holds that is true through times. Kind, compassionate, with sometimes cruel nature around, Tibet is reflected in vivid detail. Lovely journey to follow through.

[Anna Urbanek · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author was probably the least likable person in the universe at some point. Maybe if she didn't focus that much on how all the natives bowed to her, appreciated her, and stretched their 'ugly oriental faces' in smiles when 'the first European woman arrived at their village', I'd have learnt something about the Tibetans from this book. As the author mentions multiple times that the 'natives' were walking by her horse when she was leaving their village 'for hours', I am positive they did it only to make absolutely sure she's gone. And then probably move their village elsewhere, so she can't get back.

[Sotiris Makrygiannis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dont get confused with the book's title; a better title could be the road trip to Tibet. It starts from Kasmir. The Ancient Greeks called the region Kasperia, which has been identified with Kaspapyros of Hecataeus of Miletus (apud Stephanus of Byzantium) and Kaspatyros of Herodotus (3.102, 4.44). Kashmir is also believed to be the country meant by Ptolemy's Kaspeiria.

The first observation is that while this book is 100 years old, the Kasmir issue between the Indians and Pakistanis (they were not called like this back then) existed. At the start of the trip, Isabella mentions the daily discussions of the locals. The community was divided between Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. Muslims were complaining daily that the region's administration was under the hands of their Hindu brothers. I say brothers becouse in this book, their characteristics are not different, only the religious part.

I wondered if the issue of governance was created as a buffer between 2 opposing religious cultures. Meaning that Buddhists had, have and probably will remain in control of a buffer zone between the Holy Place of Tibet and a predominantly Muslim country. Perhaps, but the point remains the Kasmir dispute is five times older than the Cyprus issue between Christians and Muslim brothers.

The descriptions of the region are unique, the Lamas, the production of Kasmir fabric, the isolation of the people during the winter, and the harsh environment but also the beauty of it. As she went uphill toward Tibet, she found German Christian missionairs trying to convert the local population to the Gospel of Christ by teaching them manufacturing, production, and commerce. She describes how the locals were touched by the dramatic story of Jesus and converted to Christianity and the number of sox and other clothes they produced to finance the Christian mission.

The Germans had the best houses in the region due to their knowledge of architecture but lived like locals. She also praises the British empire for the infrastructure projects that created roads to enable transportation.

Overall, the landscape descriptions are excellent, but did I learn much about how to live among Tibetians? Not much, but I enjoyed everything else.

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 2 out of 5]

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Among the Tibetans; by Isabella Lucy Bird.
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This writer uses the term Tibet or Little Tibet interchangeably when referring actually to Ladakh, thus helping Chinese program of ever expanding by claiming lands and alternately simply occupying them.

One picks up this book for love of Tibet, but it disappoints at the outset, even apart from the midway realisation about the title being incorrect - her intended journey was to Leh, only. She's quite muddled, throughout, and calls the people Tibetan or Balti, when they are in fact Ladakhi, however close or otherwise be the three neighbouring racially. She also, confusedly, keeps calling it central Asia, which, strictly speaking, is the part of Asia North of Afghanistan, and South of Russia and Siberia. She also states incorrectly that Kailas range is to North of Leh and visible; in reality, Kailaas is a single peak, standing apart and not connected to others, and not only much further from Leh but Southeast, not North.
............

Several varieties of racism, and a mixed but purely British caste system imposed on India by colonial rulers, are all too obvious in the very first paragraph:-

"The Vale of Kashmir is too well known to require description. It is the 'happy hunting-ground' of the Anglo-Indian sportsman and tourist, the resort of artists and invalids, the home of pashm shawls and exquisitely embroidered fabrics, and the land of Lalla Rookh. Its inhabitants, chiefly Moslems, infamously governed by Hindus, are a feeble race, attracting little interest, valuable to travellers as 'coolies' or porters, and repulsive to them from the mingled cunning and obsequiousness which have been fostered by ages of oppression. But even for them there is the dawn of hope, for the Church Missionary Society has a strong medical and educational mission at the capital, a hospital and dispensary under the charge of a lady M.D. have been opened for women, and a capable and upright 'settlement officer,' lent by the Indian Government, is investigating the iniquitous land arrangements with a view to a just settlement."

The purely British, or Western, caste system is only mixed in the sense it accommodates others, whether non British or non European, by providing them rungs below those for Brits, of which the majority of India are set at the lowest for obvious reasons - namely, Macaulay policy, the tool to break up India and her spine, so as to tread on it to interests of invading rulers.
............

Beauty of the land impresses the author:-

" ... agricultural villages at an altitude of 5,000 feet, the track, usually bad and sometimes steep and perilous, passes through flower-gemmed alpine meadows, along dark gorges above the booming and rushing Sind, through woods matted with the sweet white jasmine, the lower hem of the pine and deodar forests which ascend the mountains to a considerable altitude, past rifts giving glimpses of dazzling snow-peaks, over grassy slopes dotted with villages, houses, and shrines embosomed in walnut groves, in sight of the frowning crags of Haramuk, through wooded lanes and park-like country over which farms are thinly scattered, over unrailed and shaky bridges, and across avalanche slopes, till it reaches Gagangair, a dream of lonely beauty, with a camping-ground of velvety sward under noble plane-trees. Above this place the valley closes in between walls of precipices and crags, which rise almost abruptly from the Sind to heights of 8,000 and 10,000 feet."

And she is woken to reality of her employees:-

" ... Usman Shah maltreated the villagers, and not only robbed them of their best fowls, but requisitioned all manner of things in my name, though I scrupulously and personally paid for everything, beating the people with his scabbarded sword if they showed any intention of standing upon their rights. Then I found that my clever factotum, not content with the legitimate 'squeeze' of ten per cent., was charging me double price for everything and paying the sellers only half the actual price, this legerdemain being perpetrated in my presence. He also by threats got back from the coolies half their day's wages after I had paid them, received money for barley for Gyalpo, and never bought it, a fact brought to light by the growing feebleness of the horse, and cheated in all sorts of mean and plausible ways, though I paid him exceptionally high wages, and was prepared to 'wink' at a moderate amount of dishonesty, so long as it affected only myself."

"The remaining marches to Leh, the capital of Lesser Tibet, were full of fascination and novelty. Everywhere the Tibetans were friendly and cordial. In each village I was invited to the headman's house, and taken by him to visit the chief inhabitants; every traveller, lay and clerical, passed by with the cheerful salutation Tzu, asked me where I came from and whither I was going, wished me a good journey, admired Gyalpo, and when he scaled rock ladders and scrambled gamely through difficult torrents, cheered him like Englishmen, the general jollity and cordiality of manners contrasting cheerily with the chilling aloofness of Moslems."
............

"I had scarcely finished breakfast when he called; a man of great height and strong voice, with a cheery manner, a face beaming with kindness, and speaking excellent English. Leh was the goal of my journey, but Mr. Redslob came with a proposal to escort me over the great passes to the northward for a three weeks' journey to Nubra, a district formed of the combined valleys of the Shayok and Nubra rivers, tributaries of the Indus, and abounding in interest. Of course I at once accepted an offer so full of advantages, and the performance was better even than the promise."
............

"The situation of Leh is a grand one, the great Kailas range, with its glaciers and snowfields, rising just behind it to the north, its passes alone reaching an altitude of nearly 18,000 feet; while to the south, across a gravelly descent and the Indus Valley, rise great red ranges dominated by snow-peaks exceeding 21,000 feet in altitude. ... Moslem element is always increasing, partly owing to the renewal of that proselytising energy which is making itself felt throughout Asia, and partly to the marriages of Moslem traders with Ladaki women, who embrace the faith of their husbands and bring up their families in the same."

"Great caravans en route for Khotan, Yarkand, and even Chinese Tibet arrived daily from Kashmir, the Panjab, and Afghanistan, and stacked their bales of goods in the place ... "

Chinese Tibet? Who authorised this author, or any brit or Westerner, to gift away a huge country to China? It never was a part of China, and Chinese claim to Tibet rests on a treaty by Kublai Khan who styled himself Mongolian emperor of China; by such connection, China could claim not only Mongolia but all of the continent across Pacific, since natives thereof are migrants from Mongolia, supposedly.
............

"The headmen and elders of the villages came to meet us when we arrived, and escorted us when we left; the monasteries and houses with the best they contained were thrown open to us; the men sat round our camp-fires at night, telling stories and local gossip, and asking questions, everything being translated to me by my kind guide, and so we actually lived 'among the Tibetans.'"

"Along the Indus valley the servants of Englishmen beat the Tibetans, in the Shayok and Nubra valleys the Yarkand traders beat and cheat them, and the women are shy with strangers, but at Hundar they were frank and friendly with me, saying, as many others had said, 'We will trust any one who comes with the missionary.'"

"The Deskyid gonpo contains 150 lamas, all of whom have been educated at Lhassa. A younger son in every household becomes a monk, and occasionally enters upon his vocation as an acolyte pupil as soon as weaned. At the age of thirteen these acolytes are sent to study at Lhassa for five or seven years, their departure being made the occasion of a great village feast, with several days of religious observances. The close connection with Lhassa, especially in the case of the yellow lamas, gives Nubra Buddhism a singular interest. All the larger gonpos have their prototype in Lhassa, all ceremonial has originated in Lhassa, every instrument of worship has been consecrated in Lhassa, and every lama is educated in the learning only to be obtained at Lhassa. Buddhism is indeed the most salient feature of Nubra. There are gonpos everywhere, the roads are lined by miles of chod-tens, manis, and prayer-mills, and flags inscribed with sacred words in Sanskrit flutter from every roof."
............

A curious mixture of lack of understanding coupled with racism and religious bigotry is clear in the author when she writes:-

"Family life presents some curious features. In the disposal in marriage of a girl, her eldest brother has more 'say' than the parents. The eldest son brings home the bride to his father's house, but at a given age the old people are 'shelved,' i.e. they retire to a small house, which may be termed a 'jointure house,' and the eldest son assumes the patrimony and the rule of affairs. I have not met with a similar custom anywhere in the East. It is difficult to speak of Tibetan life, with all its affection and jollity, as 'family life,' for Buddhism, which enjoins monastic life, and usually celibacy along with it, on eleven thousand out of a total population of a hundred and twenty thousand, farther restrains the increase of population within the limits of sustenance by inculcating and rigidly upholding the system of polyandry, permitting marriage only to the eldest son, the heir of the land, while the bride accepts all his brothers as inferior or subordinate husbands, thus attaching the whole family to the soil and family roof-tree, the children being regarded legally as the property of the eldest son, who is addressed by them as 'Big Father,' his brothers receiving the title of 'Little Father.' The resolute determination, on economic as well as religious grounds, not to abandon this ancient custom, is the most formidable obstacle in the way of the reception of Christianity by the Tibetans. The women cling to it. They say, 'We have three or four men to help us instead of one,' and sneer at the dulness and monotony of European monogamous life! A woman said to me, 'If I had only one husband, and he died, I should be a widow; if I have two or three I am never a widow!' The word 'widow' is with them a term of reproach, and is applied abusively to animals and men. Children are brought up to be very obedient to fathers and mother, and to take great care of little ones and cattle. Parental affection is strong. Husbands and wives beat each other, but separation usually follows a violent outbreak of this kind. It is the custom for the men and women of a village to assemble when a bride enters the house of her husbands, each of them presenting her with three rupees. The Tibetan wife, far from spending these gifts on personal adornment, looks ahead, contemplating possible contingencies, and immediately hires a field, the produce of which is her own, and which accumulates year after year in a separate granary, so that she may not be portionless in case she leaves her husband!"
............

"I was heartily sorry to leave Leh, with its dazzling skies and abounding colour and movement, its stirring topics of talk, and the culture and exceeding kindness of the Moravian missionaries. Helpfulness was the rule. Gergan came over the Kharzong glacier on purpose to bring me a prayer-wheel; Lob-sang and Tse-ring-don-drub, the hospital assistants, made me a tent carpet of yak's hair cloth, singing as they sewed; and Joldan helped to secure transport for the twenty-two days' journey to Kylang. ... "

"Stok Castle is as massive as any of our mediaeval buildings, but is far lighter and roomier. It is most interesting to see a style of architecture and civilisation which bears not a solitary trace of European influence, not even in Manchester cottons or Russian gimcracks. The Gyalpo's room was only roofed for six feet within the walls, where it was supported by red pillars. Above, the deep blue Tibetan sky was flushing with the red of sunset, and from a noble window with a covered stone balcony there was an enchanting prospect of red ranges passing into translucent amethyst. ... "

" ... The mountains of the region, which are from 20,000 to 23,000 feet in altitude, are seldom precipitous or picturesque, except the huge red needles which guard the Lachalang Pass, but are rather 'monstrous protuberances,' with arid surfaces of disintegrated rock. Among these are remarkable plateaux, which are taken advantage of by caravans, and which have elevations of from 14,000 to 15,000 feet. There are few permanent rivers or streams, the lakes are salt, beside the springs, and on the plateaux there is scanty vegetation, chiefly aromatic herbs; but on the whole Rupchu is a desert of arid gravel. ... "

The lakes of salt are supporting evidence of ancient knowledge India always had regarding Himaalayan ranges rising out of ocean. Interesting detail in this respect:-

" ... I had thought Ladak windy, but Rupchu is the home of the winds, and the marches must be arranged for the quietest time of the day. Happily the gales blow with clockwork regularity, the day wind from the south and south-west rising punctually at 9 a.m. and attaining its maximum at 2.30, while the night wind from the north and north-east rises about 9 p.m. and ceases about 5 a.m. ... "

The unusual clockwork regularity speaks of a geographical and geological significance of the place.

" ... At Lachalang, at a height of over 15,000 feet, I noted a solar temperature of 152 degrees, only 35 degrees below the boiling point of water in the same region, which is about 187 degrees. To make up for this, the mercury falls below the freezing point every night of the year, even in August the difference of temperature in twelve hours often exceeding 120 degrees! The Rupchu nomads, however, delight in this climate of extremes, and regard Leh as a place only to be visited in winter, and Kulu and Kashmir as if they were the malarial swamps of the Congo!"

"In the morning there was ice on the pools, and the snow lay three inches deep. Savage life had returned to its usual monotony, and the care of flocks and herds. In the early afternoon the chief and many of the men accompanied us across the ford, and we parted with mutual expressions of good will. The march was through broad gravelly valleys, among 'monstrous protuberances' of red and yellow gravel, elevated by their height alone to the dignity of mountains. Hail came on, and Gyalpo showed his high breeding by facing it when the other animals 'turned tail' and huddled together, and a storm of heavy sleet of some hours' duration burst upon us just as we reached the dismal camping-ground of Rukchen, guarded by mountain giants which now and then showed glimpses of their white skirts through the dark driving mists. That was the only 'weather' in four months."

" ... Seen from the Baralacha Pass are vast snowfields, glaciers, and avalanche slopes. This barrier, and the Rotang, farther south, close this trade route practically for seven months of the year, for they catch the monsoon rains, which at that altitude are snows from fifteen to thirty feet deep; while on the other side of the Baralacha and throughout Rupchu and Ladak the snowfall is insignificant. ... "
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[erl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading a travelogue by a Victorian era Englishwoman who travelled all over the world. Although much is made of her travelling "alone", she always had a large entourage with her, which is to be expected. I was very disappointed in this book, for two reasons: First, Miss Bird apparently spent much of her time sketching, and refers to her sketches frequently in the book to illustrate her point. Alas, the sketches are not reproduced in the edition I read, which is pictured above. Secondly, her supercilious attitude grated on me after about 2 pages. She never discusses what prompted her to go to Tibet or what she hopes to accomplish there. She does discuss with disgust the British influence in India, and how she hopes to get away from it. But once she gets to Tibet, she has nothing nice to say about the Tibetans. She repeatedly describes them as ugly and dirty. She keeps pushing her "staff", made up entirely of local people, to do things against their better judgment. The only people she seems to have any respect for at all are a group of German missionaries. She is arrogant and annoying. Don't waste your time with this silly book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a certain amount of Victorian dryness which can be off-putting, but when it is employed to make light of near-death experiences from which a little old lady emerges with busted ribs and her composure unruffled, it really works. This is a beautifully written account of a Tibet that no longer exists, and that alone makes it worthwhile. Bird's strong authorial voice and the extraordinary adventures she meets make it incredible. I am intensely interested in her earlier works about Colorado now.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Vale of Kashmir is too well known to require description. It is the 'happy hunting-ground of the Anglo-Indian sportsman and tourist, the resort of artists and invalids, the home of pashm shawls and exquisitely embroidered fabrics, and the land of Lalla Rookh." Thus begins Ms. Bird her account of her travels through a now long-lost Tibet. As always, she records her impressions with a keen eye for beauty and total candor. Fascinating look at a culture of the past.

[Maryclaire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a few of Isabella Bird's books and this did not disappointment me. She can have you riding the camel with her, the way she describes the people, their culture, the weather, the land and all the dangers, along with the celebrations that she experienced. Isabella at the time was probably the only female explorer to venture into Tibet and the Himalayan mountains. It was a very interesting read.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting recounting of an unusual solo woman traveler who in the late nineteenth century braved the wilds of Kashmir, Ladakh, and southern Tibet. Her observations and descriptions of travel and people are colorful and astute, even if they are embedded in assumptions of another century. Other trips that she took and wrote about include into the wilds of the Rocky Mountains.

[Lisapete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intrepid. That's the word that best fits this amazing, independent Victorian traveller. She explored the world, solo, with a keen eye for observation, and a warm sense of compassion for fellow humans.

[MA · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great view of Tibetan culture such that we'll not see it now. Add to that an explorer who gives great descriptions of the people, places and culture as seen through the eyes of a woman. I'll be reading her adventures in the west next.

[Ameya Warde · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt shorter and less interesting than most of Bird's books, but it was still a very quick and interesting-enough read about the Tibetan area of what is now mostly Jammu & Kashmir at the end of the 19th century.

[drozda · Rating 5 out of 5]

written well before the communist take over a rich and spiritual culture Isabella Bird was an adventure in herself and her memoir is an eye opener to a way of life that is now gone from the planet.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

She gives good scenery, with plenty of plant names, but doesn't give a good sense of how the people lived. She's too focused on the spread of Christianity.

[Velvetink]

epub version

[T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so impressed with Isabella Bird! Her stamina, her grit, her tenacity in reaching remote places, and her descriptions of it all fascinated me. I thought this book was one of her best.

[Lindis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Realy loving the detail and age of this one.

[Åshild · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it, quaint , interesting, would have loved to meet the author in person, she must have been quite a lady!

[Matt D · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough accounting of travel into Tibet, though rife with the racism and ethnocentrism of the 1800s.

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review ................................................................................................
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Among the Tibetans; by Isabella Lucy Bird.
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This writer uses the term Tibet or Little Tibet interchangeably when referring actually to Ladakh, thus helping Chinese program of ever expanding by claiming lands and alternately simply occupying them.

One picks up this book for love of Tibet, but it disappoints at the outset, even apart from the midway realisation about the title being incorrect - her intended journey was to Leh, only. She's quite muddled, throughout, and calls the people Tibetan or Balti, when they are in fact Ladakhi, however close or otherwise be the three neighbouring racially. She also, confusedly, keeps calling it central Asia, which, strictly speaking, is the part of Asia North of Afghanistan, and South of Russia and Siberia. She also states incorrectly that Kailas range is to North of Leh and visible; in reality, Kailaas is a single peak, standing apart and not connected to others, and not only much further from Leh but Southeast, not North.
............

Several varieties of racism, and a mixed but purely British caste system imposed on India by colonial rulers, are all too obvious in the very first paragraph:-

"The Vale of Kashmir is too well known to require description. It is the 'happy hunting-ground' of the Anglo-Indian sportsman and tourist, the resort of artists and invalids, the home of pashm shawls and exquisitely embroidered fabrics, and the land of Lalla Rookh. Its inhabitants, chiefly Moslems, infamously governed by Hindus, are a feeble race, attracting little interest, valuable to travellers as 'coolies' or porters, and repulsive to them from the mingled cunning and obsequiousness which have been fostered by ages of oppression. But even for them there is the dawn of hope, for the Church Missionary Society has a strong medical and educational mission at the capital, a hospital and dispensary under the charge of a lady M.D. have been opened for women, and a capable and upright 'settlement officer,' lent by the Indian Government, is investigating the iniquitous land arrangements with a view to a just settlement."

The purely British, or Western, caste system is only mixed in the sense it accommodates others, whether non British or non European, by providing them rungs below those for Brits, of which the majority of India are set at the lowest for obvious reasons - namely, Macaulay policy, the tool to break up India and her spine, so as to tread on it to interests of invading rulers.
............

Beauty of the land impresses the author:-

" ... agricultural villages at an altitude of 5,000 feet, the track, usually bad and sometimes steep and perilous, passes through flower-gemmed alpine meadows, along dark gorges above the booming and rushing Sind, through woods matted with the sweet white jasmine, the lower hem of the pine and deodar forests which ascend the mountains to a considerable altitude, past rifts giving glimpses of dazzling snow-peaks, over grassy slopes dotted with villages, houses, and shrines embosomed in walnut groves, in sight of the frowning crags of Haramuk, through wooded lanes and park-like country over which farms are thinly scattered, over unrailed and shaky bridges, and across avalanche slopes, till it reaches Gagangair, a dream of lonely beauty, with a camping-ground of velvety sward under noble plane-trees. Above this place the valley closes in between walls of precipices and crags, which rise almost abruptly from the Sind to heights of 8,000 and 10,000 feet."

And she is woken to reality of her employees:-

" ... Usman Shah maltreated the villagers, and not only robbed them of their best fowls, but requisitioned all manner of things in my name, though I scrupulously and personally paid for everything, beating the people with his scabbarded sword if they showed any intention of standing upon their rights. Then I found that my clever factotum, not content with the legitimate 'squeeze' of ten per cent., was charging me double price for everything and paying the sellers only half the actual price, this legerdemain being perpetrated in my presence. He also by threats got back from the coolies half their day's wages after I had paid them, received money for barley for Gyalpo, and never bought it, a fact brought to light by the growing feebleness of the horse, and cheated in all sorts of mean and plausible ways, though I paid him exceptionally high wages, and was prepared to 'wink' at a moderate amount of dishonesty, so long as it affected only myself."

"The remaining marches to Leh, the capital of Lesser Tibet, were full of fascination and novelty. Everywhere the Tibetans were friendly and cordial. In each village I was invited to the headman's house, and taken by him to visit the chief inhabitants; every traveller, lay and clerical, passed by with the cheerful salutation Tzu, asked me where I came from and whither I was going, wished me a good journey, admired Gyalpo, and when he scaled rock ladders and scrambled gamely through difficult torrents, cheered him like Englishmen, the general jollity and cordiality of manners contrasting cheerily with the chilling aloofness of Moslems."
............

"I had scarcely finished breakfast when he called; a man of great height and strong voice, with a cheery manner, a face beaming with kindness, and speaking excellent English. Leh was the goal of my journey, but Mr. Redslob came with a proposal to escort me over the great passes to the northward for a three weeks' journey to Nubra, a district formed of the combined valleys of the Shayok and Nubra rivers, tributaries of the Indus, and abounding in interest. Of course I at once accepted an offer so full of advantages, and the performance was better even than the promise."
............

"The situation of Leh is a grand one, the great Kailas range, with its glaciers and snowfields, rising just behind it to the north, its passes alone reaching an altitude of nearly 18,000 feet; while to the south, across a gravelly descent and the Indus Valley, rise great red ranges dominated by snow-peaks exceeding 21,000 feet in altitude. ... Moslem element is always increasing, partly owing to the renewal of that proselytising energy which is making itself felt throughout Asia, and partly to the marriages of Moslem traders with Ladaki women, who embrace the faith of their husbands and bring up their families in the same."

"Great caravans en route for Khotan, Yarkand, and even Chinese Tibet arrived daily from Kashmir, the Panjab, and Afghanistan, and stacked their bales of goods in the place ... "

Chinese Tibet? Who authorised this author, or any brit or Westerner, to gift away a huge country to China? It never was a part of China, and Chinese claim to Tibet rests on a treaty by Kublai Khan who styled himself Mongolian emperor of China; by such connection, China could claim not only Mongolia but all of the continent across Pacific, since natives thereof are migrants from Mongolia, supposedly.
............

"The headmen and elders of the villages came to meet us when we arrived, and escorted us when we left; the monasteries and houses with the best they contained were thrown open to us; the men sat round our camp-fires at night, telling stories and local gossip, and asking questions, everything being translated to me by my kind guide, and so we actually lived 'among the Tibetans.'"

"Along the Indus valley the servants of Englishmen beat the Tibetans, in the Shayok and Nubra valleys the Yarkand traders beat and cheat them, and the women are shy with strangers, but at Hundar they were frank and friendly with me, saying, as many others had said, 'We will trust any one who comes with the missionary.'"

"The Deskyid gonpo contains 150 lamas, all of whom have been educated at Lhassa. A younger son in every household becomes a monk, and occasionally enters upon his vocation as an acolyte pupil as soon as weaned. At the age of thirteen these acolytes are sent to study at Lhassa for five or seven years, their departure being made the occasion of a great village feast, with several days of religious observances. The close connection with Lhassa, especially in the case of the yellow lamas, gives Nubra Buddhism a singular interest. All the larger gonpos have their prototype in Lhassa, all ceremonial has originated in Lhassa, every instrument of worship has been consecrated in Lhassa, and every lama is educated in the learning only to be obtained at Lhassa. Buddhism is indeed the most salient feature of Nubra. There are gonpos everywhere, the roads are lined by miles of chod-tens, manis, and prayer-mills, and flags inscribed with sacred words in Sanskrit flutter from every roof."
............

A curious mixture of lack of understanding coupled with racism and religious bigotry is clear in the author when she writes:-

"Family life presents some curious features. In the disposal in marriage of a girl, her eldest brother has more 'say' than the parents. The eldest son brings home the bride to his father's house, but at a given age the old people are 'shelved,' i.e. they retire to a small house, which may be termed a 'jointure house,' and the eldest son assumes the patrimony and the rule of affairs. I have not met with a similar custom anywhere in the East. It is difficult to speak of Tibetan life, with all its affection and jollity, as 'family life,' for Buddhism, which enjoins monastic life, and usually celibacy along with it, on eleven thousand out of a total population of a hundred and twenty thousand, farther restrains the increase of population within the limits of sustenance by inculcating and rigidly upholding the system of polyandry, permitting marriage only to the eldest son, the heir of the land, while the bride accepts all his brothers as inferior or subordinate husbands, thus attaching the whole family to the soil and family roof-tree, the children being regarded legally as the property of the eldest son, who is addressed by them as 'Big Father,' his brothers receiving the title of 'Little Father.' The resolute determination, on economic as well as religious grounds, not to abandon this ancient custom, is the most formidable obstacle in the way of the reception of Christianity by the Tibetans. The women cling to it. They say, 'We have three or four men to help us instead of one,' and sneer at the dulness and monotony of European monogamous life! A woman said to me, 'If I had only one husband, and he died, I should be a widow; if I have two or three I am never a widow!' The word 'widow' is with them a term of reproach, and is applied abusively to animals and men. Children are brought up to be very obedient to fathers and mother, and to take great care of little ones and cattle. Parental affection is strong. Husbands and wives beat each other, but separation usually follows a violent outbreak of this kind. It is the custom for the men and women of a village to assemble when a bride enters the house of her husbands, each of them presenting her with three rupees. The Tibetan wife, far from spending these gifts on personal adornment, looks ahead, contemplating possible contingencies, and immediately hires a field, the produce of which is her own, and which accumulates year after year in a separate granary, so that she may not be portionless in case she leaves her husband!"
............

"I was heartily sorry to leave Leh, with its dazzling skies and abounding colour and movement, its stirring topics of talk, and the culture and exceeding kindness of the Moravian missionaries. Helpfulness was the rule. Gergan came over the Kharzong glacier on purpose to bring me a prayer-wheel; Lob-sang and Tse-ring-don-drub, the hospital assistants, made me a tent carpet of yak's hair cloth, singing as they sewed; and Joldan helped to secure transport for the twenty-two days' journey to Kylang. ... "

"Stok Castle is as massive as any of our mediaeval buildings, but is far lighter and roomier. It is most interesting to see a style of architecture and civilisation which bears not a solitary trace of European influence, not even in Manchester cottons or Russian gimcracks. The Gyalpo's room was only roofed for six feet within the walls, where it was supported by red pillars. Above, the deep blue Tibetan sky was flushing with the red of sunset, and from a noble window with a covered stone balcony there was an enchanting prospect of red ranges passing into translucent amethyst. ... "

" ... The mountains of the region, which are from 20,000 to 23,000 feet in altitude, are seldom precipitous or picturesque, except the huge red needles which guard the Lachalang Pass, but are rather 'monstrous protuberances,' with arid surfaces of disintegrated rock. Among these are remarkable plateaux, which are taken advantage of by caravans, and which have elevations of from 14,000 to 15,000 feet. There are few permanent rivers or streams, the lakes are salt, beside the springs, and on the plateaux there is scanty vegetation, chiefly aromatic herbs; but on the whole Rupchu is a desert of arid gravel. ... "

The lakes of salt are supporting evidence of ancient knowledge India always had regarding Himaalayan ranges rising out of ocean. Interesting detail in this respect:-

" ... I had thought Ladak windy, but Rupchu is the home of the winds, and the marches must be arranged for the quietest time of the day. Happily the gales blow with clockwork regularity, the day wind from the south and south-west rising punctually at 9 a.m. and attaining its maximum at 2.30, while the night wind from the north and north-east rises about 9 p.m. and ceases about 5 a.m. ... "

The unusual clockwork regularity speaks of a geographical and geological significance of the place.

" ... At Lachalang, at a height of over 15,000 feet, I noted a solar temperature of 152 degrees, only 35 degrees below the boiling point of water in the same region, which is about 187 degrees. To make up for this, the mercury falls below the freezing point every night of the year, even in August the difference of temperature in twelve hours often exceeding 120 degrees! The Rupchu nomads, however, delight in this climate of extremes, and regard Leh as a place only to be visited in winter, and Kulu and Kashmir as if they were the malarial swamps of the Congo!"

"In the morning there was ice on the pools, and the snow lay three inches deep. Savage life had returned to its usual monotony, and the care of flocks and herds. In the early afternoon the chief and many of the men accompanied us across the ford, and we parted with mutual expressions of good will. The march was through broad gravelly valleys, among 'monstrous protuberances' of red and yellow gravel, elevated by their height alone to the dignity of mountains. Hail came on, and Gyalpo showed his high breeding by facing it when the other animals 'turned tail' and huddled together, and a storm of heavy sleet of some hours' duration burst upon us just as we reached the dismal camping-ground of Rukchen, guarded by mountain giants which now and then showed glimpses of their white skirts through the dark driving mists. That was the only 'weather' in four months."

" ... Seen from the Baralacha Pass are vast snowfields, glaciers, and avalanche slopes. This barrier, and the Rotang, farther south, close this trade route practically for seven months of the year, for they catch the monsoon rains, which at that altitude are snows from fifteen to thirty feet deep; while on the other side of the Baralacha and throughout Rupchu and Ladak the snowfall is insignificant. ... "

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review ................................................................................................
................................................................................................
Among the Tibetans; by Isabella Lucy Bird.
................................................................................................
................................................................................................


This writer uses the term Tibet or Little Tibet interchangeably when referring actually to Ladakh, thus helping Chinese program of ever expanding by claiming lands and alternately simply occupying them.

One picks up this book for love of Tibet, but it disappoints at the outset, even apart from the midway realisation about the title being incorrect - her intended journey was to Leh, only. She's quite muddled, throughout, and calls the people Tibetan or Balti, when they are in fact Ladakhi, however close or otherwise be the three neighbouring racially. She also, confusedly, keeps calling it central Asia, which, strictly speaking, is the part of Asia North of Afghanistan, and South of Russia and Siberia. She also states incorrectly that Kailas range is to North of Leh and visible; in reality, Kailaas is a single peak, standing apart and not connected to others, and not only much further from Leh but Southeast, not North.
............

Several varieties of racism, and a mixed but purely British caste system imposed on India by colonial rulers, are all too obvious in the very first paragraph:-

"The Vale of Kashmir is too well known to require description. It is the 'happy hunting-ground' of the Anglo-Indian sportsman and tourist, the resort of artists and invalids, the home of pashm shawls and exquisitely embroidered fabrics, and the land of Lalla Rookh. Its inhabitants, chiefly Moslems, infamously governed by Hindus, are a feeble race, attracting little interest, valuable to travellers as 'coolies' or porters, and repulsive to them from the mingled cunning and obsequiousness which have been fostered by ages of oppression. But even for them there is the dawn of hope, for the Church Missionary Society has a strong medical and educational mission at the capital, a hospital and dispensary under the charge of a lady M.D. have been opened for women, and a capable and upright 'settlement officer,' lent by the Indian Government, is investigating the iniquitous land arrangements with a view to a just settlement."

The purely British, or Western, caste system is only mixed in the sense it accommodates others, whether non British or non European, by providing them rungs below those for Brits, of which the majority of India are set at the lowest for obvious reasons - namely, Macaulay policy, the tool to break up India and her spine, so as to tread on it to interests of invading rulers.
............

Beauty of the land impresses the author:-

" ... agricultural villages at an altitude of 5,000 feet, the track, usually bad and sometimes steep and perilous, passes through flower-gemmed alpine meadows, along dark gorges above the booming and rushing Sind, through woods matted with the sweet white jasmine, the lower hem of the pine and deodar forests which ascend the mountains to a considerable altitude, past rifts giving glimpses of dazzling snow-peaks, over grassy slopes dotted with villages, houses, and shrines embosomed in walnut groves, in sight of the frowning crags of Haramuk, through wooded lanes and park-like country over which farms are thinly scattered, over unrailed and shaky bridges, and across avalanche slopes, till it reaches Gagangair, a dream of lonely beauty, with a camping-ground of velvety sward under noble plane-trees. Above this place the valley closes in between walls of precipices and crags, which rise almost abruptly from the Sind to heights of 8,000 and 10,000 feet."

And she is woken to reality of her employees:-

" ... Usman Shah maltreated the villagers, and not only robbed them of their best fowls, but requisitioned all manner of things in my name, though I scrupulously and personally paid for everything, beating the people with his scabbarded sword if they showed any intention of standing upon their rights. Then I found that my clever factotum, not content with the legitimate 'squeeze' of ten per cent., was charging me double price for everything and paying the sellers only half the actual price, this legerdemain being perpetrated in my presence. He also by threats got back from the coolies half their day's wages after I had paid them, received money for barley for Gyalpo, and never bought it, a fact brought to light by the growing feebleness of the horse, and cheated in all sorts of mean and plausible ways, though I paid him exceptionally high wages, and was prepared to 'wink' at a moderate amount of dishonesty, so long as it affected only myself."

"The remaining marches to Leh, the capital of Lesser Tibet, were full of fascination and novelty. Everywhere the Tibetans were friendly and cordial. In each village I was invited to the headman's house, and taken by him to visit the chief inhabitants; every traveller, lay and clerical, passed by with the cheerful salutation Tzu, asked me where I came from and whither I was going, wished me a good journey, admired Gyalpo, and when he scaled rock ladders and scrambled gamely through difficult torrents, cheered him like Englishmen, the general jollity and cordiality of manners contrasting cheerily with the chilling aloofness of Moslems."
............

"I had scarcely finished breakfast when he called; a man of great height and strong voice, with a cheery manner, a face beaming with kindness, and speaking excellent English. Leh was the goal of my journey, but Mr. Redslob came with a proposal to escort me over the great passes to the northward for a three weeks' journey to Nubra, a district formed of the combined valleys of the Shayok and Nubra rivers, tributaries of the Indus, and abounding in interest. Of course I at once accepted an offer so full of advantages, and the performance was better even than the promise."
............

"The situation of Leh is a grand one, the great Kailas range, with its glaciers and snowfields, rising just behind it to the north, its passes alone reaching an altitude of nearly 18,000 feet; while to the south, across a gravelly descent and the Indus Valley, rise great red ranges dominated by snow-peaks exceeding 21,000 feet in altitude. ... Moslem element is always increasing, partly owing to the renewal of that proselytising energy which is making itself felt throughout Asia, and partly to the marriages of Moslem traders with Ladaki women, who embrace the faith of their husbands and bring up their families in the same."

"Great caravans en route for Khotan, Yarkand, and even Chinese Tibet arrived daily from Kashmir, the Panjab, and Afghanistan, and stacked their bales of goods in the place ... "

Chinese Tibet? Who authorised this author, or any brit or Westerner, to gift away a huge country to China? It never was a part of China, and Chinese claim to Tibet rests on a treaty by Kublai Khan who styled himself Mongolian emperor of China; by such connection, China could claim not only Mongolia but all of the continent across Pacific, since natives thereof are migrants from Mongolia, supposedly.
............

"The headmen and elders of the villages came to meet us when we arrived, and escorted us when we left; the monasteries and houses with the best they contained were thrown open to us; the men sat round our camp-fires at night, telling stories and local gossip, and asking questions, everything being translated to me by my kind guide, and so we actually lived 'among the Tibetans.'"

"Along the Indus valley the servants of Englishmen beat the Tibetans, in the Shayok and Nubra valleys the Yarkand traders beat and cheat them, and the women are shy with strangers, but at Hundar they were frank and friendly with me, saying, as many others had said, 'We will trust any one who comes with the missionary.'"

"The Deskyid gonpo contains 150 lamas, all of whom have been educated at Lhassa. A younger son in every household becomes a monk, and occasionally enters upon his vocation as an acolyte pupil as soon as weaned. At the age of thirteen these acolytes are sent to study at Lhassa for five or seven years, their departure being made the occasion of a great village feast, with several days of religious observances. The close connection with Lhassa, especially in the case of the yellow lamas, gives Nubra Buddhism a singular interest. All the larger gonpos have their prototype in Lhassa, all ceremonial has originated in Lhassa, every instrument of worship has been consecrated in Lhassa, and every lama is educated in the learning only to be obtained at Lhassa. Buddhism is indeed the most salient feature of Nubra. There are gonpos everywhere, the roads are lined by miles of chod-tens, manis, and prayer-mills, and flags inscribed with sacred words in Sanskrit flutter from every roof."
............

A curious mixture of lack of understanding coupled with racism and religious bigotry is clear in the author when she writes:-

"Family life presents some curious features. In the disposal in marriage of a girl, her eldest brother has more 'say' than the parents. The eldest son brings home the bride to his father's house, but at a given age the old people are 'shelved,' i.e. they retire to a small house, which may be termed a 'jointure house,' and the eldest son assumes the patrimony and the rule of affairs. I have not met with a similar custom anywhere in the East. It is difficult to speak of Tibetan life, with all its affection and jollity, as 'family life,' for Buddhism, which enjoins monastic life, and usually celibacy along with it, on eleven thousand out of a total population of a hundred and twenty thousand, farther restrains the increase of population within the limits of sustenance by inculcating and rigidly upholding the system of polyandry, permitting marriage only to the eldest son, the heir of the land, while the bride accepts all his brothers as inferior or subordinate husbands, thus attaching the whole family to the soil and family roof-tree, the children being regarded legally as the property of the eldest son, who is addressed by them as 'Big Father,' his brothers receiving the title of 'Little Father.' The resolute determination, on economic as well as religious grounds, not to abandon this ancient custom, is the most formidable obstacle in the way of the reception of Christianity by the Tibetans. The women cling to it. They say, 'We have three or four men to help us instead of one,' and sneer at the dulness and monotony of European monogamous life! A woman said to me, 'If I had only one husband, and he died, I should be a widow; if I have two or three I am never a widow!' The word 'widow' is with them a term of reproach, and is applied abusively to animals and men. Children are brought up to be very obedient to fathers and mother, and to take great care of little ones and cattle. Parental affection is strong. Husbands and wives beat each other, but separation usually follows a violent outbreak of this kind. It is the custom for the men and women of a village to assemble when a bride enters the house of her husbands, each of them presenting her with three rupees. The Tibetan wife, far from spending these gifts on personal adornment, looks ahead, contemplating possible contingencies, and immediately hires a field, the produce of which is her own, and which accumulates year after year in a separate granary, so that she may not be portionless in case she leaves her husband!"
............

"I was heartily sorry to leave Leh, with its dazzling skies and abounding colour and movement, its stirring topics of talk, and the culture and exceeding kindness of the Moravian missionaries. Helpfulness was the rule. Gergan came over the Kharzong glacier on purpose to bring me a prayer-wheel; Lob-sang and Tse-ring-don-drub, the hospital assistants, made me a tent carpet of yak's hair cloth, singing as they sewed; and Joldan helped to secure transport for the twenty-two days' journey to Kylang. ... "

"Stok Castle is as massive as any of our mediaeval buildings, but is far lighter and roomier. It is most interesting to see a style of architecture and civilisation which bears not a solitary trace of European influence, not even in Manchester cottons or Russian gimcracks. The Gyalpo's room was only roofed for six feet within the walls, where it was supported by red pillars. Above, the deep blue Tibetan sky was flushing with the red of sunset, and from a noble window with a covered stone balcony there was an enchanting prospect of red ranges passing into translucent amethyst. ... "

" ... The mountains of the region, which are from 20,000 to 23,000 feet in altitude, are seldom precipitous or picturesque, except the huge red needles which guard the Lachalang Pass, but are rather 'monstrous protuberances,' with arid surfaces of disintegrated rock. Among these are remarkable plateaux, which are taken advantage of by caravans, and which have elevations of from 14,000 to 15,000 feet. There are few permanent rivers or streams, the lakes are salt, beside the springs, and on the plateaux there is scanty vegetation, chiefly aromatic herbs; but on the whole Rupchu is a desert of arid gravel. ... "

The lakes of salt are supporting evidence of ancient knowledge India always had regarding Himaalayan ranges rising out of ocean. Interesting detail in this respect:-

" ... I had thought Ladak windy, but Rupchu is the home of the winds, and the marches must be arranged for the quietest time of the day. Happily the gales blow with clockwork regularity, the day wind from the south and south-west rising punctually at 9 a.m. and attaining its maximum at 2.30, while the night wind from the north and north-east rises about 9 p.m. and ceases about 5 a.m. ... "

The unusual clockwork regularity speaks of a geographical and geological significance of the place.

" ... At Lachalang, at a height of over 15,000 feet, I noted a solar temperature of 152 degrees, only 35 degrees below the boiling point of water in the same region, which is about 187 degrees. To make up for this, the mercury falls below the freezing point every night of the year, even in August the difference of temperature in twelve hours often exceeding 120 degrees! The Rupchu nomads, however, delight in this climate of extremes, and regard Leh as a place only to be visited in winter, and Kulu and Kashmir as if they were the malarial swamps of the Congo!"

"In the morning there was ice on the pools, and the snow lay three inches deep. Savage life had returned to its usual monotony, and the care of flocks and herds. In the early afternoon the chief and many of the men accompanied us across the ford, and we parted with mutual expressions of good will. The march was through broad gravelly valleys, among 'monstrous protuberances' of red and yellow gravel, elevated by their height alone to the dignity of mountains. Hail came on, and Gyalpo showed his high breeding by facing it when the other animals 'turned tail' and huddled together, and a storm of heavy sleet of some hours' duration burst upon us just as we reached the dismal camping-ground of Rukchen, guarded by mountain giants which now and then showed glimpses of their white skirts through the dark driving mists. That was the only 'weather' in four months."

" ... Seen from the Baralacha Pass are vast snowfields, glaciers, and avalanche slopes. This barrier, and the Rotang, farther south, close this trade route practically for seven months of the year, for they catch the monsoon rains, which at that altitude are snows from fifteen to thirty feet deep; while on the other side of the Baralacha and throughout Rupchu and Ladak the snowfall is insignificant. ... "

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkable, a bit of an eye opener for me.
Isabella Bird herself was one of the most remarkable women of the late Victorian period. Born in Yorkshire, England in 1831, she moved around quite a bit when she was young, as well as more extensively throughout her later life.
Her upbringing appears to have furnished her with a strong sense of independence; her reverend father was a keen botanist, whilst her talented mother could turn her hand to many things practical. Isabella was to become a rather intrepid, independent traveller, visiting America, Central, southern Asia and the Far East, with a keen eye for detail and a gift for illustration.
This book, although quite short, is for me something of a tour de force, exemplifying her great detailed knowledge of botany, geology, geography and culture; for example, the cultural and physiological contrast between Afghans and the Tibetans.
Another eye opener for me was her descriptions of the work of the Moravian Church Mission in Ladakh, basically German christians who she came across and befriended. She seems to have been particularly taken by their stalwart adherence to their work, (some had been there for forty years) despite the harsh conditions and the opposition (mostly friendly) they came across from local Buddhists.
Although she was educated by her parents, her descriptions are typically florid, the usual writing style of the period and enjoyable to read, bringing her travels from Kashmir, into Ladakh and beyond, very much to life. The extreme quality of the landscapes, the harsh climate, and the diversity of peoples and cultures and animals, comes across most strongly and vividly.
That said, this book is of its time; she typifies the arrogant opinions of many British Victorians in regard to race and culture, plus the sense that the English in particular are somehow superior, an attitude which is typical of any empire approaching its zenith of power and influence. Bearing this in mind, I believe we should not judge her too harshly, for it is surely equally arrogant of ourselves if we judge all past beliefs and attitudes as somehow always inferior to our own, which we naturally think of as modern and enlightened - one day in the future our own beliefs and opinions will be equally harshly judged and criticised.
A very fine book in my opinion, well worth reading, and I look forward to reading her other publications.

[Galicius · Rating 3 out of 5]

This writing by a 60-year-old Englishwoman traveling in India, Kashmir and into Tibet in 1889, places where few men dared to go though she seems to have a large entourage with her is amazing but with strange and curious parts that made me question whether they are due to her Victorian frame of mind or her own. She describes her journey in detail, the natural surroundings, and the inhabitants often very harshly. She does not mention taking any written notes, which befuddles the reader on how she recalled such details of what she saw, but the secret is probably in her drawing and painting, which she mentions doing several times.

What is one to make of such passages as these?

“With the huge Kailas range as a background, this great rendezvous of Central Asian traffic has a great fascination, even though moral shadows of the darkest kind abound.”

“The Kashmiris are false, cringing, and suspicious; the Tibetans truthful, independent, and friendly, one of the pleasantest of peoples.”

“The irredeemable ugliness of the Tibetans produced a deeper impression daily. It is grotesque, and is heightened, not modified, by their costume and ornament. They have high cheekbones, broad flat noses without visible bridges, small, dark, oblique eyes, with heavy lids and imperceptible eyebrows, wide mouths, full lips, thick, big, projecting ears, deformed by great hoops, straight black hair nearly as coarse as horsehair, and short, square, ungainly figures. The faces of the men are smooth. The women seldom exceed five feet in height, and a man is tall at five feet four.

“The Tibetans are dirty. They wash once a year, and, except for festivals, seldom change their clothes till they begin to drop off. They are healthy and hardy, even the women can carry weights of sixty pounds over the passes; they attain extreme old age; their voices are harsh and loud, and their laughter is noisy and hearty.

“The irredeemable ugliness of the Tibetans produced a deeper impression daily. It is grotesque, and is heightened, not modified, by their costume and ornament.

“as they swept past there were glimpses above and among the foam-crested surges of the wild- looking heads and drifting forelocks of two grey horses swimming desperately for their lives,—a splendid sight. They landed safely, but of the baggage animals one was sucked under the boat and drowned,”

[CarolBeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This weekend I finished "Among the Tibetans" by Isabella L. Bird.

I've read quite a few books by Isabella Bird (1831-1904). She was a British lady whose doctor told her to travel for her health, and so she did. The first book of hers that I read, "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" had her riding through the USA Rocky Mountains, sometimes alone, on horseback. She was chased by robbers, chased by a bear, she woke up in an unchinked cabin with the sheets frozen to her lips. In other books she was on a runaway elephant in the jungle, climbing a volcano on the Hawaiian Islands...you get the idea. She was the first woman to be named a fellow in the Royal Geographic Society. She never complains, just states facts. Her books were originally from the letters she sent her sister back home.

This book had me, in the same paragraph, laughing out loud and being stunned to silence, even within one sentence! Imagine crossing mountains where "altitude sickness" can cause death, on horseback or riding a yak!? All this in a long skirt, often sidesaddle, and at the age of 60?

Now, you MUST read this with an historical mindset. She will say things that, to our ears, seem quite awful. But actually, "Her sensitivity to all manner of cultural expressions adds luster to her evocative accounts of Tibetan ceremonies, decorations, costumes, and music, and her vivid descriptions of palaces, temples, and monasteries offer rare glimpses of a vanished world." (from the back cover). Just remember you are reading HISTORY here and don't expect certain sensitivities to which we are accustomed.

I was constantly grabbing my phone to look up pictures of plants (she's quite the botanist) or words which are, to us, esoteric. I never DID find out what "animated earth" was. Google seemed to think it was something by Disney, or whatever.

This book is illustrated with drawings of animals, people, and places she visited.