Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Secret Exploration of Tibet (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "In the heart of Central Asia, buttressed by the highest mountains on earth, soars the immense natural fortress of Tibet..." (more)
Key Phrases: Dalai Lama, Savage Landor, Nain Singh (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hopkirk (The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia) traces international attempts at breaking Tibet's isolationism since the mid-19th century.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Hopkirk's wonderfully vivid book describes the...always thrilling efforts of explorers, spies...to plumb Tibet's secrets."-Philadelphia Inquirer
"Hopkirk handles the storytelling with infectious enthusiasm...[with] great and obvious love for the subject, and is one of those British writers who cannot write an awkward of boring sentence."-Bruse Colman, The San Francisco Chronicle
"A lament for a country that, wanting only to be left alone, was hauled unceremoniously into the twentieth century, and is now an unwilling satellite of Communist China."-Richard E. Nicholls, The Philadelphia Inquirer

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha Globe (April 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568360509
• ISBN-13: 978-1568360508
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,386 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #2 in	Books > History > Asia > Tibet
  #16 in	Books > History > Asia > Central Asia
  #21 in	Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Geography

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars enthralling, June 23, 1998

By A Customer

This book presents vivid stsories that present the background to modern problems in Tibet -- I found it to be well-researched: by that I mean, the primary resources were listed so that I could easily identify the original documents if I wanted to read them. I knew almost nothing about why I should care about Tibet's problems -- I feel now that I have a good background and sense of the issues. The book captures your imagination, as well. It's a very good book for anyone interested in the background to this modern problem and for those who like to visit far away places without leaving their arm chairs. It is so well written you don't feel like you are reading a history lesson; it seems more like a mystery-romance-adventure book.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Outside World Comes Crashing In, November 2, 2002

By	doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This is a very entertaining little history book by the master expert on the obscure lands of Central Asia, Peter Hopkirk, who is also an excellent writer. The focus here is an esoteric bit of history which has probably not been covered elsewhere - the race by the outside world to get into mysterious Tibet, and especially its forbidden capital Lhasa. The Tibetans' almost pathological need to be left alone led them to repel anyone from outside shortly after such interlopers crossed the border. Add to that Tibet's inaccessibility, surrounded on three sides by the most impenetrable mountains on Earth, and on the fourth side by equally hostile deserts, all of which many people though the ages have died trying to traverse. Of course this all made outsiders, especially Westerners, yearn to "gatecrash" this forbidden land.

Hopkirk tells the intriguing tales of the various adventurers, diplomats, and missionaries who made the earliest attempts to reach Lhasa, most of whom didn't make it. While mostly unsuccessful in reaching their ultimate goal, these hardy souls still had incredible stories to tell and contributed immensely to the sparse knowledge of Tibet's geography and culture. Included are some unexpected goodies like the story of the indestructible Pundits from India who literally counted the steps they took, plus the earliest deadly attempts to conquer Mt. Everest. The book ends rather depressingly with the story of China's brutal occupation in the 1950's, which ended Tibet's self-imposed isolation once and for all, after which the Chinese closed it off even more tightly because of political paranoia.

Throughout the book, Hopkirk offers some key insights into ancient Tibetan culture and their homegrown brand of extreme Buddhism. As a result we find that Tibet was never the spiritual paradise of pure thought and devotion that modern celebrity Buddhists try to tell us it was, before the outside world screwed everything up (we see that not even the Dalai Lama makes that claim). You may be surprised by the fierce, if naďve, warlike tendencies of the Tibetans, even their monks. The only problem with this book is Hopkirk's tendency to hold back on many stories. He starts to describe some very interesting tales, like the harsh ordeal of the lone female missionary Susie Rijnhart or the mysterious Japanese spy Narita Yasuteru, only to abruptly claim that the conclusions are outside the scope of the book or more extensively described elsewhere. This is a rather frustrating tease from the author, especially since this book is not that long and there is surely room to spare. But that's the only misstep in this most enjoyable book. (Note: for the much larger story of this region, in which Tibet played a small historical part, see Hopkirk's later masterwork "The Great Game.")

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pulp History, August 20, 2005

By	Tuan Robo - See all my reviews

If there's ever been a writer of history who captures the essence of Indiana Jones-style adventure, that man is Peter Hopkirk. Having made a career as Our-Man-in-Asia for the London Times, Hopkirk turned from writing news to writing history, in particular the often-overlooked history of Central Asia. He began this phase of his career by writing a history of European encroachment on the Silk Road. He followed this work with Trespassers on The Roof of The World. This history of "the secret exploration of Tibet" is an enjoyable blend of mystery, romance, adventure, history, and journalism.

Trespassers on the Roof of The World traces the history of colonial interlopers in their quest for the legendary city of Lhasa. Hopkirk follows the footsteps of the very first pundits who pioneered the mapping of Tibet and leads his readers through the bloody years of the Red Chinese Cultural Revolution. His treatment is both thorough and comprehensive. The reader first finds that the spirit of James Bond's "Q" was alive and well in the Survey of India, the chief repository of geographic intelligence during the Great Game. The early surveyor-spies for the British Empire were followed in turn by both Men-of-Science and Men (and, perhaps more prominently, Women)-of-God. Explorers of every cut and hue, and finally, the armies, both British and Chinese. Hopkirk treats each one, while intentionally glossing over some of the most celebrated of the Tibetan visitors, such as Heinrich Harrer.

As a collector of "rare books on Central Asia," Hopkirk makes ample use of the most obscure narratives and travel logs, in addition to the archives of the Survey of India and the Royal Geographic Society. Hopkirk's appeal as a writer is in his ability to take these dusty old diaries and bureaucratic reports and breath life into them. His journalistic style imbues the history with the urgency and import of an NBC News Special Report.

Another of Hopkirk's achievements is his ability to remain sympathetic with the Tibetan people without perpetrating the stereotype engendered by the Richard Gere and Company that the Tibetans were living an idyllic virtuous life of contemplation before the Chinese rolled in. Hopkirk points out that although Lhasa is the mysterious, romantic City of God, it was a squalid hellhole, which one source called, "A Metropolis of Filth." He recalls the incidents of monks fighting over young boys, citizens defecating in open cisterns in the streets, and a criminal justice system that frequently used removal of eyes and hands as punishment (the former being more frequent than the latter).

While his tone and style appeal to a popular audience, they do not detract from the book's scholarly endeavor to demonstrate that although it strove for centuries to remain cloistered from the outside world, Tibet has been a crucial character on the world stage.