Frank Kingdon Ward's Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges

Frank Kingdon Ward's Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges PDF Author: Francis Kingdon Ward
Publisher: Antique Collectors Club Dist
ISBN: 9781851495160
Category : Brahmaputra River
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
First published in 1926, this is the fascinating account of plant-hunter and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward's most important epedition. Kenneth Cox, Kenneth Storm, Jr., and Ian Baker have spent the last fifteen years retracing Ward's route.

Frank Kingdon Ward's Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges

Frank Kingdon Ward's Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges PDF Author: Francis Kingdon Ward
Publisher: Antique Collectors Club Dist
ISBN: 9781851495160
Category : Brahmaputra River
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
First published in 1926, this is the fascinating account of plant-hunter and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward's most important epedition. Kenneth Cox, Kenneth Storm, Jr., and Ian Baker have spent the last fifteen years retracing Ward's route.

Frank Kingdon Ward's Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges

Frank Kingdon Ward's Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges PDF Author: Francis Kingdon Ward
Publisher: ACC Distribution
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 326

Get Book

Book Description
"This new edition contains the original Kingdon Ward text (with about fifty of his own photographs from the archive at the Royal Geographical Society) and extensive additional material including a new Foreword by Kingdon Ward's widow, Jean Rasmussen, a brief biography of Kingdon Ward, a history of the exploration and geography of the region, an account of the religious significance of the area as a a place of pilgrimage, a note on the geology and more than 250 colour photographs with detailed captions on the plants of the area, most of which are described by Kingdon Ward in the original text." "There are first person accounts of recent expeditions to the area by Ken Cox and Ken Storm, Jr. and a photographic essay documents for the first time in a book the 'new' Hidden Falls located in the portion of the gorge left unexplored by Frank Kingdon Ward and Lord Cawdor in 1924."--BOOK JACKET.

The Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges

The Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges PDF Author: Francis Kingdon-Ward
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Botany
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Get Book

Book Description


The Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges

The Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges PDF Author: Francis Kingdon Ward
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Tibet (China)
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book

Book Description


The Heart of the World

The Heart of the World PDF Author: Ian Baker
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110111780X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 546

Get Book

Book Description
The myth of Shangri-la originates in Tibetan Buddhist beliefs in beyul, or hidden lands, sacred sanctuaries that reveal themselves to devout pilgrims and in times of crisis. The more remote and inaccessible the beyul, the vaster its reputed qualities. Ancient Tibetan prophecies declare that the greatest of all hidden lands lies at the heart of the forbidding Tsangpo Gorge, deep in the Himalayas and veiled by a colossal waterfall. Nineteenth-century accounts of this fabled waterfall inspired a series of ill-fated European expeditions that ended prematurely in 1925 when the intrepid British plant collector Frank Kingdon-Ward penetrated all but a five-mile section of the Tsangpo’s innermost gorge and declared that the falls were no more than a “religious myth” and a “romance of geography.” The heart of the Tsangpo Gorge remained a blank spot on the map of world exploration until world-class climber and Buddhist scholar Ian Baker delved into the legends. Whatever cryptic Tibetan scrolls or past explorers had said about the Tsangpo’s innermost gorge, Baker determined, could be verified only by exploring the uncharted five-mile gap. After several years of encountering sheer cliffs, maelstroms of impassable white water, and dense leech-infested jungles, on the last of a series of extraordinary expeditions, Baker and his National Geographic–sponsored team reached the depths of the Tsangpo Gorge. They made news worldwide by finding there a 108-foot-high waterfall, the legendary grail of Western explorers and Tibetan seekers alike. The Heart of the World is one of the most captivating stories of exploration and discovery in recent memory—an extraordinary journey to one of the wildest and most inaccessible places on earth and a pilgrimage to the heart of the Tibetan Buddhist faith.

Himalaya

Himalaya PDF Author: Ed Douglas
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0393882462
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
A magisterial history of the Himalaya: an epic story of peoples, cultures, and adventures among the world’s highest mountains. For centuries, the unique and astonishing geography of the Himalaya has attracted those in search of spiritual and literal elevation: pilgrims, adventurers, and mountaineers seeking to test themselves among the world’s most spectacular and challenging peaks. But far from being wild and barren, the Himalaya has been home to a diversity of indigenous and local cultures, a crucible of world religions, a crossroads for trade, and a meeting point and conflict zone for empires past and present. In this landmark work, nearly two decades in the making, Ed Douglas makes a thrilling case for the Himalaya’s importance in global history and offers a soaring account of life at the "roof of the world." Spanning millennia, from the earliest inhabitants to the present conflicts over Tibet and Everest, Himalaya explores history, culture, climate, geography, and politics. Douglas profiles the great kings of Kathmandu and Nepal; he describes the architects who built the towering white Stupas that distinguish Himalayan architecture; and he traces the flourishing evolution of Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism that brought Himalayan spirituality to the world. He also depicts with great drama the story of how the East India Company grappled for dominance with China’s emperors, how India fought Mao’s Communists, and how mass tourism and ecological transformation are obscuring the bloody legacy of the Cold War. Himalaya is history written on the grandest yet also the most human scale—encompassing geology and genetics, botany and art, and bursting with stories of courage and resourcefulness.

Courting the Diamond Sow

Courting the Diamond Sow PDF Author: Wickliffe W. Walker
Publisher: National Geographic
ISBN: 9780792264217
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book

Book Description
The harrowing account of the pioneering descent of Tibets Tsangpo River one of modern explorations greatest challenges which ended in tragedy with the death of Olympic Paddler Doug Gordon. A COMPELLING AND DRAMATIC EXPEDITION ACCOUNT set in one of the worlds most beautiful and remote regions. The Tsangpo is one of the last great uncharted rivers in the world. It's the Everest of whitewater, except unlike Everest, it's never been done. -- Arlene Burns, the Washington Post ROMANCE OF THE WORLD'S FORBIDDEN AND SECRET PLACES: Mysterious and sacred, Tibet has fascinated explorers for more than a century. The stretch of the Tsangpo attempted by Walker and his team is the source of the legend of Shangri-la, and the model for James Hiltons novel, Lost Horizons. CONTROVERSY OVER THE 'DISCOVERY' OF TSANGPO'S HIDDEN FALLS: In 1924 British explorer Frank Kingdon-Ward observed what he believed to be the highest waterfall on the Tsangpo, a waterfall to rival Niagra. His observations led to a race to document these falls, which has attracted generations of explorers.FILM TIE-IN: The Walker expedition is the subject of a National Geographic Explorer special that will re-air at the time of publication. In 1926 botanist F. Kingdon Ward described one of modern explorationIs greatest challengesUtracking the course of the Tsangpo River of Tibet. In a mysterious region called Pemako, the Land of Flowers, the mighty Tsangpo loops around the eastern anchor of the Himalayan Range, cutting the deepest canyon on earth and emerging more than nine thousand feet lower on the plains of Assam, India, renamed the Brahmaputra. He and others added pieces to the puzzle he called Ithe riddle of the Tsangpo gorges, O but no one has yet followed the river throughout its course. For almost four decades on several continents, a small group of American companionsUWick Walker, Tom and Jamie McEwan, and Doug Gordon were privileged to participate in the emergence of a new and thrilling sport, whitewater racing. Moving from World Cup and Olympic levels to expeditions around the globe, Wick Walker and his companions were drawn to an area of Tibet where the highest and deepest of the EarthIs recesses come together.Perhaps no place in the world is more dramatic (or less known and explored) than the magnificent series of gorges that lie in far southeastern Tibet. In late September 1998, after years of planning, including a month-long reconnaissance into the gorge in 1997, and garnering support from the National Geographic Society, Malden Mills Industries, and a host of other sponsors, the expedition finally launched into the treacherous gorges for a first descent. Four whitewater paddlers, perhaps the best possible team in the world, would descend the Tsangpo, supported and resupplied at intervals by a team of four trekkers accompanied by two sherpas, local guides and porters, and a videographer from National Geographic. The descent, which began with difficultiesUa huge river swollen by a season of Ififty-year floodsO ended in tragedy with the death of renowned chemist and Olympian, Doug Gordon, who perished on October 16th while running a small put powerful waterfall. Although his teammates searched for his body for four days, his remains were never found, vanishing into the treacherous waters. The expedition was immediately abandoned.Courting the Diamond Sow is a compelling expedition account shaped by the first-hand diary accounts of the kayackers as they passed through the gorges; the history of this mysterious corner of the world some refer to as Shangri La and the attempts to explore it; and a cultural profile of this remote Tibetan region.

In the Land of the Blue Poppies

In the Land of the Blue Poppies PDF Author: Frank Kingdon Ward
Publisher: Modern Library
ISBN: 0307828832
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Get Book

Book Description
A Modern Library Paperback Original During the first years of the twentieth century, the British plant collector and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward went on twenty-four impossibly daring expeditions throughout Tibet, China, and Southeast Asia, in search of rare and elusive species of plants. He was responsible for the discovery of numerous varieties previously unknown in Europe and America, including the legendary Tibetan blue poppy, and the introduction of their seeds into the world’s gardens. Kingdon Ward’s accounts capture all the romance of his wildly adventurous expeditions, whether he was swinging across a bottomless gorge on a cable of twisted bamboo strands or clambering across a rocky scree in fear of an impending avalanche. Drawn from writings out of print for almost seventy-five years, this new collection, edited and introduced by professional horticulturalist and House & Garden columnist Tom Christopher, returns Kingdon Ward to his deserved place in the literature of discovery and the literature of the garden.

Tales of the Rose Tree

Tales of the Rose Tree PDF Author: Jane Brown
Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher
ISBN: 9781567923124
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book

Book Description
"From the towering Burmese magnificum, with its three-foot-diameter trunk and its masses of sweet-smelling purple flowers, to the potted pink azalea, glowing like a burning bush on the backyard garden patio, Rhododendron is a genus of infinite variety and beauty. There are 1,025 known species: it is a native of the snows of the Himalayas and the swamps of the Carolinas, the jungles of Borneo and the island inlets of Japan. It is also one of the oldest of plants - many believe the dove that returned to Noah's ark was carrying a rhododendron sprig - although it has been known to western horticulture for only 300 years. The curious history of Westerners and rhododendrons is full of swashbuckling plant collectors and visionary gardeners, colonial violence and ecological destruction, stunning botanical successes and bitter business disappointments. And it is here related with consummate skill by Jane Brown, an English garden writer."--BOOK JACKET.

The Brahmaputra Basin Water Resources

The Brahmaputra Basin Water Resources PDF Author: Vijay Singh
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781402017377
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 634

Get Book

Book Description
The Brahmaputra River represents nearly 30% of India's water resources potential and 41% of its total hydropower. No sustainable future for this underdeveloped region can occur without a plan combining social, political, economic, cultural, and legal considerations with scientific paradigms. This book pools the talent, knowledge and experience of a wide range of water resource professionals to provide an exhaustive study of the Brahmaputra River basin, present and future.