Heartlands [Paperback]

Michael Buckley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2002

Buckley embarked on this trip to come to grips with Tibetan ways. His travels took him throughout the Tibetan Plateau, including Ladakh and Bhutan. He met questionable new agers, dissident monks and the Dalai Lama, and encountered giant phalluses and stuffed kangeroos.

Product Details

• Paperback: 317 pages
• Publisher: Summersdale (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840242094
• ISBN-13: 978-1840242096
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,476,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A nomad at heart, Michael Buckley thrives on adventuring in remote corners of the globe--rappelling through the treetops of Costa Rica, hunting elusive mammals in the wilds of Bhutan (with a camera), diving with manta rays, kayaking in Cambodia, or trekking in Tibet. To get off the track, he is keen on self-propelled transport methods--mountain-biking, hiking, kayaking and diving. He is author or co-author of ten books, including Eccentric Explorers (a biography-based book), Shangri-La: a Guide to the Himalayan Dream (themed around the Himalayan utopia), Tibet: the Bradt Travel Guide, and Travels in the Tibetan World (travel narrative). Although he travels world-wide, he is especially drawn to Southeast Asia and the Himalayan region.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative, insightful, humourous and entertaining stories through the areas of Tibetan culture, September 29, 2009

By 

Jerome Ryan (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heartlands (Paperback)

After interviewing the Dalai lama in 1989 in Dharamsala, Buckley vowed: "I want to see as much as I can of the Tibetan world before the flame is snuffed out, to get cracking before it all disappears. Because according to the Dalai Lama, it's on the brink - and he should know." Buckley relates 13 trips from 1989 to 1999 through the areas of Tibetan culture - Tibet, Ladakh, Dharamsala India, Outer Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim.

The stories are: bicycling the high passes of Ladakh; Dharamsala and a chat with the Dalai Lama; through Mongolia and Amdo; visiting Lhasa; taking landcruiser tours near Lhasa; acting in a Chinese movie about the British invasion in Gyantse; visiting Guge Kingdom in western Tibet; trekking around Mount Kailash; trekking to Upper Mustang in Nepal; teaching young Tibetan refugees English near McLeod in India; a humourous account of a best selling autobiography of a Tibetan Lama from 1956 whose author turned out to be a fake; Bhutan; and Sikkim visiting Darjeeling, Gangtok and Kalimpong to see Kangchenjunga.

Buckley trekked to Lo Manthang in Upper Mustang in October 1995, where he had tea with the King. "The wind has, over the millennia, sculpted the canyon walls into surreal shapes - organ-pipe cliffs, fluted pillars, rock spires. Striking bands of colour appear in the hills: blue, grey, rust and green tones. ... The crystal clear vistas redefine your sense of space. Under piercing blue skies, this awesome display of wilderness resonates right through your bones, a high-altitude tonic."

I enjoyed Buckley's writing style, informative, insightful, humourous and entertaining. Like the Travelers series, this book is a great companion to travel guides before traveling to Tibetan areas.