The Hunt for the Buru [Paperback]

Ralph Izzard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2001

This firsthand account of a 1948 journey to a treacherous valley in northern India in search of a mysterious creature is both a classic travel adventure and a graphic record of an amazing expedition. The book chronicles the group’s movement into a remote valley in Assam, where the inhabitants had only recently given up headhunting, on a quest for the Buru—an elusive, monstrous reptile well documented by those native to the area. The Buru, like the Yeti, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster, has captured the imagination of adventurers around the world, and remains a popular subject of cryptozoology—the study of animals yet to be discovered by science. Recalled in vivid detail are treks through hazardous swamplands filled with cobras and leeches, and campaigns through perilous jungles where thumbnail-sized ticks and wild boar are indigenous, all in the hunt for the legendary saurian.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ralph Izzard was an adventurer and a foreign correspondent for the London Daily Mail. He is the author of The Abominable Snowman Adventure.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Linden Publishing (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941936651
• ISBN-13: 978-0941936651
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,471,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Honest if uneventful, December 4, 2002

By 

Russroom (Summit, NJ) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Hunt for the Buru (Paperback)

If you are farmiliar with the subjectmatter of the Buru, then you already know that the this book will not end with the author capturing the creature and solving the mystery. This book is an honest and interesting narrative of a 1940's trek into the jungle. It's very much a travelouge, sort of the day to day events that occur on such a trip. It is slightly dated, and like I said, they don't find the beast.
Still, I give the author points for honesty, and it is an overall good natured account.

Anyone who has a serious interest ion cryptozoology would like this book.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A more innocent age, June 5, 2003

By 

Eric Turowski (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hunt for the Buru (Paperback)

Back in the 1940s, Ralph Izzard was part of an effort to seek out a mythical animal in the Himalyan foothills. It really was a much more innocent time, as the seekers really do expect they might find a giant, unknown (by western science) reptile that lived in the jungle swamps. They track the beast both by logic (only tribes of the plateau know of this animal, they all describe it the same way, they all describe it as living in a specific place, etc.) and by trekking into the jungles of Northern India.
The book is also reminiscent of a less enlightened time, when mighty white hunters foray into the wild with childlike, lazy bearers to seek adventure.
While Izzard didn't find a buru, the anticipation that he might is what drives this book. It is refreshing to read the accounts of a proactive cryptozoologist rather than a passive interview collector.