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Nanda Devi: A Journey To The Last Sanctuary
Surrounded by 20,000 foot peaks which effectively seal off the mountain at their center, the Nanda Devi Sanctuary was virtually impenetrable. But in 1934 Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman made the first of their great Himalayan expeditions by forcing a way up the river gorge. In 2000, the Sanctuary was entered for one single visit. Hugh Thomson was offered a place on this unique expedition led by Eric Shipton's son, John Shipton and the great Indian mountaineer, Colonel Kumar. This journey forms the basis of the book. Woven through it are all the amazing stories that surround the mountain—a powerful blend of myths and politics.
125 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2004
7 people are currently reading
195 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Thomson
134 books42 followersHugh Thomson believes strongly that the world is not as explored as we like to suppose.
He writes about the wilder corners of the planet, from the edges of Peru to the Himalayas, looking for Inca ruins and lost cultures. Geographical commented that 'he is a writer who explores and not an explorer who writes.'
For 'The Green Road into the Trees', he returned to Britain to write about his own country. It won the inaugural Wainwright Prize for Best Nature and Travel Writing. 'An immensely enjoyable book: curious, articulate, intellectually playful and savagely candid.' Spectator.
For the successful sequel, 'One Man and a Mule', he decided to have ‘a South American adventure in England’ by taking a mule as a pack animal across the north of the country.
His most recent book is his first novel - ‘Viva Byron!’ - which imagines what might have happened if the poet had not died an early death in Greece - but instead lived - and then some! - by going to South America with the great last love of his life, Countess Teresa Guiccioli, to help Simon Bolivar liberate it from the Spanish. "Hugh Thomson is a mesmerising storyteller." Sara Wheeler.
His previous books include: 'The White Rock', 'Nanda Devi' and 'Cochineal Red: Travels through Ancient Peru' (all Weidenfeld & Nicolson), and he has collected some of his favourite places in the lavishly illustrated '50 Wonders of the World'.
In 2009 he wrote 'Tequila Oil', a memoir about getting lost in Mexico when he was eighteen and, in the words of the Alice Cooper song, 'didn't know what he wanted'. It was serialised by BBC R4 as 'Book of the Week'.
"Delightful, celebratory and honest....In a way 'Tequila Oil' is the first installment of his now-complete trilogy, his 'Cochineal Red' and 'The White Rock' being two of the finest books on Latin America of recent years." (Rory MacLean, The Guardian)
See www.thewhiterock.co.uk for more, including his blog and events at which he is speaking.
He writes about the wilder corners of the planet, from the edges of Peru to the Himalayas, looking for Inca ruins and lost cultures. Geographical commented that 'he is a writer who explores and not an explorer who writes.'
For 'The Green Road into the Trees', he returned to Britain to write about his own country. It won the inaugural Wainwright Prize for Best Nature and Travel Writing. 'An immensely enjoyable book: curious, articulate, intellectually playful and savagely candid.' Spectator.
For the successful sequel, 'One Man and a Mule', he decided to have ‘a South American adventure in England’ by taking a mule as a pack animal across the north of the country.
His most recent book is his first novel - ‘Viva Byron!’ - which imagines what might have happened if the poet had not died an early death in Greece - but instead lived - and then some! - by going to South America with the great last love of his life, Countess Teresa Guiccioli, to help Simon Bolivar liberate it from the Spanish. "Hugh Thomson is a mesmerising storyteller." Sara Wheeler.
His previous books include: 'The White Rock', 'Nanda Devi' and 'Cochineal Red: Travels through Ancient Peru' (all Weidenfeld & Nicolson), and he has collected some of his favourite places in the lavishly illustrated '50 Wonders of the World'.
In 2009 he wrote 'Tequila Oil', a memoir about getting lost in Mexico when he was eighteen and, in the words of the Alice Cooper song, 'didn't know what he wanted'. It was serialised by BBC R4 as 'Book of the Week'.
"Delightful, celebratory and honest....In a way 'Tequila Oil' is the first installment of his now-complete trilogy, his 'Cochineal Red' and 'The White Rock' being two of the finest books on Latin America of recent years." (Rory MacLean, The Guardian)
See www.thewhiterock.co.uk for more, including his blog and events at which he is speaking.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 1, 2018
Not really a "climbing" book but an excellent insight into the Nanda Devi sanctuary. It's a place I'd heard of but knew little about. It is quite possibly the origin of "Shangri-la". A central mountain surrounded by a lush valley which in turn is surrounded by almost impassable high mountains. The author is part of an exceptionally rare expedition to the sanctuary. It is the story of the trek in to the sanctuary and it does actually require some mountaineering simply to get there.
However it is about far more than that. The author takes the opportunity to recount the stories of previous expeditions to the area. Also there are tales of other climbs and expeditions woven seamlessly into the narrative. I learnt a lot and found it a fascinating read. I'll probably try the other book by this author when I can. 4.5/5 - my only real complaint was I wanted more!
However it is about far more than that. The author takes the opportunity to recount the stories of previous expeditions to the area. Also there are tales of other climbs and expeditions woven seamlessly into the narrative. I learnt a lot and found it a fascinating read. I'll probably try the other book by this author when I can. 4.5/5 - my only real complaint was I wanted more!
June 17, 2013
It's the best and most frightening thing I've ever done in my life – total exposure. I thought I was going to die several times.
John Shipton, son of the legendary Himalayan explorer Eric Shipton, shared this report after following in his father's footsteps up the sheer walls of a box canyon that led to Nanda Devi's forbidden Inner Sanctuary. In the early 1930s, the elder Shipton along with Bill Tilman had discovered the vertiginous route in their quest to reconnoiter Nanda Devi, the highest peak in India. Tilman claimed the summit in 1936, but border tensions with China, worsened by bizarre CIA-sponsored plots to imbed a monitoring device in the summit of the mountain, led the Indian government to close the Sanctuary to civilian explorers. By 2000, Nanda Devi had not seen an expedition for over twenty years. So when John Shipton offered adventure writer Hugh Thomson a chance to join a select group of mountaineers allowed one brief visit to the valley – reputed to be as beautiful as it was inaccessible – Thomson immediately clamped on his best boots. The chance to visit this Shangri La would probably never come again.
Thomson found the hike up the Rishi Ganges gorge strenuous enough, even though the company was excellent – Steve Berry, George Band, "Bull" Kumar, and Ian McNaught-Davis are some of the most respected mountaineers of the 20th century. But Shipton's report of climbing the 3,000 foot face of a box canyon with little or no protection (i.e., ropes), sliding from ledge to ledge, clambering up narrow chimneys, and gripping stoney cold outcroppings with numb fingers all inspired in Thomsom some very convincing meditations on the fear that climbing induces. If only he managed to sustain Shipton's timbre of fear and trembling, tempered now and then by passages of adrenaline-stoked euphoria, this book would be a mountaineering classic. Alas, after a few pages of genuine hair-raising adventure, Thomson passes on to yet another tale of the glory days of mountaineering past in the shadows of Nanda Devi, and my heartbeat settles into its old, sombre rhythm.
Nevertheless, it's hard to find fault with Thomson's reluctance to capture every exciting detail of this trek. He was brought along on this expedition as a skilled pen chosen to record the Great Ones' last tramp through the Abode of Snow into the forbidden vales. I had the feeling a certain points that this book was more the work of a wedding photographer than a writer of thumping adventures. It's all polished and polite and everyone gets his name mentioned, in full, the appropriate number of times ... but it's not always very exciting, and you sort of wish that some one would take a topple from time to time just so something would happen. The only real disaster, it turns out, was the loss of a cosmetic bag, dropped by a porter and dashed open on the rocks. Vae mihi!
By far the greatest disappointment, though, were the pictures of the Inner Sanctuary. After 100 pages of stories about the Miltonic beauty of the valley surrounding Nanda Devi, we naturally anticipate views of lush meadows, herds of bharal grazing contentedly, carpets of rare mountain flowers, perhaps a snow leopard slinking along an outcropping. What we get, though, in Thomson's sole picture of the valley, is a cloudy shot of a stone wall looming threateningly over a tiny camp squatting in the dust. Thomson doesn't even tell us about the misery he must have felt as he anticipated his descent down the box canyon (going up is always easier). This is one of those books whose abrupt ending leaves you wondering at first if the binder didn't forget to stitch in the last signature.
Read Nanda Devi: A Journey to the Last Sanctuary (2004) for its stories of the glories of expeditions past. It's certainly inspired in me an interest to read more about and by Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman. But if you came looking for a glimpse into the hidden Sanctuary, you'll be disappointed. Thomson's pulled back the veil and poked in his head, but he's not eager to share what's he's seen; he seems more than content to obscure his revelation behind the shrouds of other men's tales.
John Shipton, son of the legendary Himalayan explorer Eric Shipton, shared this report after following in his father's footsteps up the sheer walls of a box canyon that led to Nanda Devi's forbidden Inner Sanctuary. In the early 1930s, the elder Shipton along with Bill Tilman had discovered the vertiginous route in their quest to reconnoiter Nanda Devi, the highest peak in India. Tilman claimed the summit in 1936, but border tensions with China, worsened by bizarre CIA-sponsored plots to imbed a monitoring device in the summit of the mountain, led the Indian government to close the Sanctuary to civilian explorers. By 2000, Nanda Devi had not seen an expedition for over twenty years. So when John Shipton offered adventure writer Hugh Thomson a chance to join a select group of mountaineers allowed one brief visit to the valley – reputed to be as beautiful as it was inaccessible – Thomson immediately clamped on his best boots. The chance to visit this Shangri La would probably never come again.
Thomson found the hike up the Rishi Ganges gorge strenuous enough, even though the company was excellent – Steve Berry, George Band, "Bull" Kumar, and Ian McNaught-Davis are some of the most respected mountaineers of the 20th century. But Shipton's report of climbing the 3,000 foot face of a box canyon with little or no protection (i.e., ropes), sliding from ledge to ledge, clambering up narrow chimneys, and gripping stoney cold outcroppings with numb fingers all inspired in Thomsom some very convincing meditations on the fear that climbing induces. If only he managed to sustain Shipton's timbre of fear and trembling, tempered now and then by passages of adrenaline-stoked euphoria, this book would be a mountaineering classic. Alas, after a few pages of genuine hair-raising adventure, Thomson passes on to yet another tale of the glory days of mountaineering past in the shadows of Nanda Devi, and my heartbeat settles into its old, sombre rhythm.
Nevertheless, it's hard to find fault with Thomson's reluctance to capture every exciting detail of this trek. He was brought along on this expedition as a skilled pen chosen to record the Great Ones' last tramp through the Abode of Snow into the forbidden vales. I had the feeling a certain points that this book was more the work of a wedding photographer than a writer of thumping adventures. It's all polished and polite and everyone gets his name mentioned, in full, the appropriate number of times ... but it's not always very exciting, and you sort of wish that some one would take a topple from time to time just so something would happen. The only real disaster, it turns out, was the loss of a cosmetic bag, dropped by a porter and dashed open on the rocks. Vae mihi!
By far the greatest disappointment, though, were the pictures of the Inner Sanctuary. After 100 pages of stories about the Miltonic beauty of the valley surrounding Nanda Devi, we naturally anticipate views of lush meadows, herds of bharal grazing contentedly, carpets of rare mountain flowers, perhaps a snow leopard slinking along an outcropping. What we get, though, in Thomson's sole picture of the valley, is a cloudy shot of a stone wall looming threateningly over a tiny camp squatting in the dust. Thomson doesn't even tell us about the misery he must have felt as he anticipated his descent down the box canyon (going up is always easier). This is one of those books whose abrupt ending leaves you wondering at first if the binder didn't forget to stitch in the last signature.
Read Nanda Devi: A Journey to the Last Sanctuary (2004) for its stories of the glories of expeditions past. It's certainly inspired in me an interest to read more about and by Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman. But if you came looking for a glimpse into the hidden Sanctuary, you'll be disappointed. Thomson's pulled back the veil and poked in his head, but he's not eager to share what's he's seen; he seems more than content to obscure his revelation behind the shrouds of other men's tales.
October 22, 2011
this book is the best!!! short and simple, nicely written and always engaging. the story of a real shangri-la, with interwoven with fascinating tales of India, mountaineering, the relationship of buddhism to hinduism, Milton's Paradise Lost and of course the Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag.
best quote: "implicit in the idea of entering a sanctuary was the idea of its fall."
best quote: "implicit in the idea of entering a sanctuary was the idea of its fall."
June 20, 2012
Lovely book, well written, a joy to read about an amazing place.
June 8, 2020
Another outstanding book by Hugh Thomson.
I'm always equally amazed and perturbed by people who decide to climb mountains/scale ice faces/risk life and limb to explore somewhere "because it's there".
Hugh Thomson presents this journey to the sanctuary at Nanda Devi mountain in the Himalaya region and expertly explains why such people are compelled to do what they do.
His descriptive ability is impeccable at recounting the awe-inspiring yet foreboding surroundings, along with the personalities and personal histories of his fellow journeymen and previous forays to the area.
Thomson is by turns pensive, witty, forthright, and humorous, making the story of the Shining Mountain and the goddess she represents a most engaging tale.
I'm always equally amazed and perturbed by people who decide to climb mountains/scale ice faces/risk life and limb to explore somewhere "because it's there".
Hugh Thomson presents this journey to the sanctuary at Nanda Devi mountain in the Himalaya region and expertly explains why such people are compelled to do what they do.
His descriptive ability is impeccable at recounting the awe-inspiring yet foreboding surroundings, along with the personalities and personal histories of his fellow journeymen and previous forays to the area.
Thomson is by turns pensive, witty, forthright, and humorous, making the story of the Shining Mountain and the goddess she represents a most engaging tale.
February 22, 2016
Hugh Thomson accompanies the 2000 expedition to assess the hidden sanctuary around this sacred mountain between India and Tibet. It is virtually inaccessible and has seen the deaths of experienced mountaineers. He vividly describes the beauty and majesty, and the stories of the men he walks and camps with.
May 16, 2019
I found this book particularly enjoyable because I was able to read it with a view of the actual mountain he is describing. It gave great context to the mountains I was in at the time, and it was refreshing to have a perspective and history on mountaineering from an outsider's perspective.
February 11, 2018
Heard the author at Jaipur literature festival and was tempted to read him. Extremely gripping and very interesting with good insights about mountains. A must read.
December 25, 2025
It took me nearly 3 weeks, but I finally got around to finishing Hugh Thomson's Nanda Devi!
About two-thirds of the way through, the book stirred something in me; a vague, but insistent urge to seek out a little adventure of my own. So I did a solo trip to a coastal town in Karnataka, called Gokarna. In Gokarna, they have multiple beaches with hills in between them, and a popular thing to do is trek across, landing finally at Paradise Beach, the most isolated of them all. I picked a horrible time of day to do it (noon) but it was great fun regardless.
At a few points on the trail, especially near the final stretch, the path more or less disappeared, and I had to chart my own path across what felt like a sheer rock face. In those moments, I caught a faint glimpse of what Shipton must have felt like, entering the Sanctuary for the first time and seeing landscapes no one had ever seen before.
When I got back, I briefly considered abandoning the book, it hadn’t quite gripped me yet. But I’m so glad I pushed on. The final thirty five pages of the book were extraordinary, they filled me with such wonder and amazement and they kept me up at night. The whole bit about the CIA was insanity (they still haven't found the plutonium!), Thomson's descriptions were great, with his use of phrases like 'a fair amount of Christmas lubrication', feeling like 'a London chimney sweep' upon emerging into the inner sanctuary , 'beguilingly sugared tea'... I could go on.
I also loved the way the book reshaped how I think about mountains, especially the description of Everest as 'a brute of a mountain'. The dynamics between the climbers and the porters were fascinating too, particularly how differently each climber approached those relationships.
Overall it was a great read, and I enjoyed that my copy came with photos!
About two-thirds of the way through, the book stirred something in me; a vague, but insistent urge to seek out a little adventure of my own. So I did a solo trip to a coastal town in Karnataka, called Gokarna. In Gokarna, they have multiple beaches with hills in between them, and a popular thing to do is trek across, landing finally at Paradise Beach, the most isolated of them all. I picked a horrible time of day to do it (noon) but it was great fun regardless.
At a few points on the trail, especially near the final stretch, the path more or less disappeared, and I had to chart my own path across what felt like a sheer rock face. In those moments, I caught a faint glimpse of what Shipton must have felt like, entering the Sanctuary for the first time and seeing landscapes no one had ever seen before.
When I got back, I briefly considered abandoning the book, it hadn’t quite gripped me yet. But I’m so glad I pushed on. The final thirty five pages of the book were extraordinary, they filled me with such wonder and amazement and they kept me up at night. The whole bit about the CIA was insanity (they still haven't found the plutonium!), Thomson's descriptions were great, with his use of phrases like 'a fair amount of Christmas lubrication', feeling like 'a London chimney sweep' upon emerging into the inner sanctuary , 'beguilingly sugared tea'... I could go on.
I also loved the way the book reshaped how I think about mountains, especially the description of Everest as 'a brute of a mountain'. The dynamics between the climbers and the porters were fascinating too, particularly how differently each climber approached those relationships.
Overall it was a great read, and I enjoyed that my copy came with photos!
October 18, 2025
I have been lucky about 2 things.
1. That I have had the pleasure of reading while Nanda Devi guards me from a distance.
2. That the books I've read on Nanda Devi are some of the most passionate books on mountaineering literature.
Hugh Thomson's Nanda Devi: A Journey to the Last Sanctuary is right up there with the Nanda Devi affair and one i took great joy in reading.
Nanda Devi now being closed off for expeditions, reading Thomson gave me a clear picture of the Shangri La that the inner sanctuary is.
As the book says, whether you cross the dangerous ledge or fall to your death into the Rishi-Ganga gorge, you'll reach heaven.
1. That I have had the pleasure of reading while Nanda Devi guards me from a distance.
2. That the books I've read on Nanda Devi are some of the most passionate books on mountaineering literature.
Hugh Thomson's Nanda Devi: A Journey to the Last Sanctuary is right up there with the Nanda Devi affair and one i took great joy in reading.
Nanda Devi now being closed off for expeditions, reading Thomson gave me a clear picture of the Shangri La that the inner sanctuary is.
As the book says, whether you cross the dangerous ledge or fall to your death into the Rishi-Ganga gorge, you'll reach heaven.
January 7, 2021
Highly recommended for a great armchair adventure
A fascinating account of an expedition to the remote Nanda Davi Sanctuary including the stories of its mysteries, religious significance and earlier mountaineers’ journeys.
A fascinating account of an expedition to the remote Nanda Davi Sanctuary including the stories of its mysteries, religious significance and earlier mountaineers’ journeys.
December 6, 2023
Enjoyed it.
February 2, 2009
CIA, Classified, Cold War, Radioactive listening post, China, mountain climbing. What can I say, it's a most interesting back story, but overall dragged out. Still worth a read for the info.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews