Almost all of the Himalayas had been mapped by the time the Great Game - in which the British and Russian empires fought for control of Central and Southern Asia - reached its zenith in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Only Tibet remained unknown and unexplored, zealously guarded and closed off to everyone. Britain sent a number of spies into this forbidden land, disguised as pilgrims and wanderers, outfitted with secret survey equipment and tasked with collecting topographical knowledge, and information about the culture and customs of Tibet. Among them was Kinthup, a tailor who went as a monk's companion to confirm that the Tsangpo and the Brahmaputra were the same river. Sarat Chandra Das, a schoolmaster, was also sent on a clandestine mission, and came back with extensive data and a trove of ancient manuscripts and documents. Bells of Shangri-La brings to vivid life the journeys and adventures of Kinthup, Sarat Chandra Das and others, including Eric Bailey, an officer who was part of the British invasion of Tibet in 1903. Weaving biography with history, and the memories of his own treks through the region, Parimal Bhattacharya writes in the great tradition of Peter Hopkirk and Peter Matthiessen to create a sparkling, unprecedented work of non-fiction.

Bells of Shangri-La brings to vivid life the journeys and adventures of Kinthup, Sarat Chandra Das and others, including Eric Bailey, an officer who was part of the British invasion of Tibet in 1903.

Join the author on an adventure which combines travel, history and myth in search of a bell with the Latin inscription: Te Deum Laudamus to unlock the secrets of Shangri-La.

In 2002, author, filmmaker, and economist Laurence Brahm, inspired by James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon and his own quest for meaning, began his search for Shangri-la. Some say that Shangri-la can be found in sacred Tibet, or maybe in wild Qinghai; others believe it can be found in artistic Yunnan in the southwest of China. The author discovered the spiritual truth that Shangri-la is not a place; rather, it is a state of mind. As Brahm hitchhiked through western China, well off the beaten track, he recorded the interior changes and illuminations he experienced as his consciousness expanded far beyond the everyday cares of his years of urban life in Beijing. The insights of his journey and his meetings with others who searched for their own versions of Shangri-la, helped him to understand that the archetypal goal he sought was actually a state of consciousness. Shangri-la may be found in a cup of caf� latte or yak-butter tea#8212if we search carefully enough and with mindfulness and compassion. Searching for Shangri-la is the first book of the Himalayan Trilogy . The reader will discover the need for fresh economic paradigms that call for compassionate capital, the empowerment of people, and prioritization of the environment. Spirituality can be more powerful than materialism. The need for sustainability has rarely been so beautifully and eloquently defended.

After a year traveling around Asia, American author Joshua Parousios just wants to find a mountain cottage where he can write a novel about the Messiah. In Kathmandu he meets Maria, a bold Polish woman who attracts and repels him, and together they stay with a Bhutia family in Sosing, a picturesque Himalayan village in the Indian state of Sikkim. With a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and golden Buddhist temples in every direction, Sosing seems like a real-life Shangri-La. But Sikkim is known for human rights abuse, and Joshua learns that Indian soldiers are committing ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Lepcha people, pagans who missionaries have converted to Christianity. Struggling with writer’s block and his passion for Maria, plagued by Dionysian dreams and enchanted by a Lepcha woman he glimpses in the forest, Joshua has increasingly bizarre experiences: time slows down, the dead appear as living, and a dense black fog just won't lift. As myth mixes with reality, a series of surreal events funnel to a wild, bacchanal finale. A deep physical and spiritual journey into the Himalayas, The Messiah of Shangri-La is a uniquely profound exploration of the mythologies that lie at the heart of the human experience.

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