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Central Asia is the subject matter of this moving travelogue by an accomplished photographer working in the tradition of the great 19thcentury explorers. Alive to the present, conscious of the past, Daniel Schwartz is without inhibition in documenting everything that he seeks out or that comes his way. Central Asia is the largest natural fortress on earth, traversed by a few routes that have been used by traders and armies since earliest times and are still today the arteries for those in search...

Matthieu Ricard has lived in Nepal for over thirty years. During this time he has forged close ties with some of Buddhism's greatest spiritual masters, from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for whom he is the official French interpreter. His experiences are recorded here in about 200 sublime colour photographs, accompanied by a perceptive text.

Mongolia is a land of constant surprises. Renowned for its classic rolling steppe land - from where, in times past, nomadic Mongol clans and confederations swept out to conquer much of the known world - it also boasts snow-capped peaks towering over wide, grassy valleys, meandering rivers and great lakes, as well as badlands, dramatic gorges and mighty sand dunes rising from flat desert floors. Within these enormous vistas much of the old Mongolia can still be found, with herdsmen, horses and he...

Mongolia is a vast country located between Siberia and China, and little-known to outsiders. As Mongolia had long been under Soviet rule, it was inaccessible to Westerners. That was until 1990, when Stephen J. Bodio began planning his trip. As a boy, Bodio was always fascinated with nature. When he saw an image in National Geographic of a Kazakh nomad, dressed in a long coat and wearing a fur hat, holding a huge eagle on his fist, his life was changed from then on. When Mongolia became independ...

A rich blend of history and spirituality, adventure and politics, laced with the thread of black comedy familiar to readers of William Dalrymple's previous work. In AD 587, two monks, John Moschos and Sophronius the Sophist, embarked on an extraordinary journey across the Byzantine world, from the shores of the Bosphorus to the sand dunes of Egypt. Their aim: to collect the wisdom of the sages and mystics of the Byzantine East before their fragile world shattered under the eruption of...

For most of us, the name Mongolia conjures up exotic images of wild horsemen, endless grasslands, and nomads - a timeless and mysterious land that is also, in many ways, one that time forgot. Under Genghis Khan, the Mongols' empire stretched across Asia and into the heart of Europe. But over the centuries Mongolia disappeared from the world's consciousness, overshadowed and dominated by its huge neighbours - first China, which ruled Mongolia for centuries, then Russia, which transformed the feud...

This is a vivid, informative, and irresistible journey through one of the world's most isolated and mysterious countries. It is a nation where falcon poachers, cattle rustlers, exiled Buddhist monks, death-defying child jockeys, and political assassins can be found in virtually every town. "Dateline Mongolia" is written with a fast-paced, journalistic style offering a unique perspective on a little-known society - from the politicians and businessmen trying to deal with the challenges being thro...

Shortly before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, David Chaffetz slipped from the protection of Western culture and immersed himself in the customs, fears, and hopes of the Afghan people, setting out by car and on horseback for a long journey through the northwestern quarter of the country. A Journey through Afghanistan is the story, told in vivid, descriptive prose, of his experience - an account that reveals more about the Afghan people themselves than most books written before or since.

Turkestan - the great landmass of Central Asia and Western China - is a unique meeting point of civilizations. The Great Silk Road that led to the nations and empires of the West ran through this vast and sometimes forbidding region and four major invasions (Greek, Arab, Mongol and Russian), together with Persian, Turkic and Chinese cultural influences, have made their mark on it. In this comprehensive account of the culture and history of Turkestan, Edgar Knobloch describes the major centres of...

A landmark in travel writing, this is the incredible true story of Heinrich Harrer's escape across the Himalayas to Tibet, set against the backdrop of the Second World War. Heinrich Harrer, already one of the greatest mountaineers of his time, was climbing in the Himalayas when war broke out in Europe. He was imprisoned by the British in India but succeeded in escaping and fled to Tibet. Settling in Lhasa, the Forbidden City, where he became a friend and tutor to the Dalai Lama, Heinri...