The Siege of Shangri-La: The Quest for Tibet's Sacred Hidden Paradise

213 Pages·2002·1.51 MB·English

by  Michael McRae

THE SIEGE OF SHANGRI-LA. Copyright © 2002 by Michael McRae. All
rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
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First edition published 2002
Map designed by Jeffrey L. Ward
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McRae, Michael J.
The Siege of Shangri-La : the quest for Tibet’s sacred hidden
paradise / Michael McRae
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Tibet (China)—Description and travel. 2. Brahmaputra River—
Description and travel. I. Title: Quest for Tibet’s sacred hidden
paradise. II. Title.
DS786 .M387 2002
951′.5—dc21 2002025871
eISBN: 978-0-76791392-8
v3.1_r1

For Ginny
my divinely feminine adventurer,
with love and appreciation
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Map
Prologue
The Riddle of the Tsangpo
Part One
The Lost Waterfall
Part Two
Perceptions of Paradise
Part Three
Beyond Geography
Epilogue
After the Flood
Notes
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Opening page: Vale of mystery: the heart of Tibet’s Tsangpo River Gorge, now thought to be the
world’s deepest. To nineteenth-century geographers, the gorge was “one of the last remaining
secret places of the earth, which might perhaps conceal a fall rivaling Niagara or Victoria Falls in
grandeur” (British political officer, spy, and explorer Capt. F. M. Bailey, 1913). Photo by David
Breashears.
Title page: Rainbow Falls as seen from above. Until the modern era, daunting terrain beyond this
point turned back all Westerners who attempted to forge through the Tsangpo’s inner canyon,
including the steel-willed plant hunter Francis Kingdon-Ward on his 1924 Riddle of the Tsangpo
Gorges Expedition. Photo by Francis Kingdon-Ward, from the collection of the Royal
Geographical Society.
Previous page: The southeastern Himalayas with the Tsangpo River in the foreground. After
disappearing into these snow-clad mountains at an elevation of about ten thousand feet, the river
emerges in the jungles of northern India at five hundred feet, having lost more than nine
thousand feet in less than two hundred river miles. Photo by Gordon Wiltsie.