The fascinating story of a journey to the source of a legend - the Nanda Devi Sanctuary - which has been described by explorers as 'more inaccessible than the North Pole'.
Until 1934 the hidden valley of the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, on the border between India and Tibet, had never been entered by human beings. Surrounded by 20,000-foot peaks, which effectively seal off Mt Nanda Devi at their centre, it remains virtually impenetrable even today.
Many early explorers, drawn there by the idea of a 'lost Eden' in the Himalaya, could only gaze with longing at the Sanctuary - until the 'terrible-twins' of pre-Second World War mountaineering, Eric Shipton and Bill Tillman, solved the problem by forcing an entrance up a precipitous river gorge. Subsequent expeditions were beset by tragedy and concern that the fragile ecology of the Sanctuary might be damaged; until, for curious reasons involving the CIA- - which the first edition of this book revealed - the Indian government finally decided to ban all visitors. The Sanctuary was briefly reopened in 2000 for a special millennium expedition, of which Hugh Thomson was a part.
Thomson weaves the story of this last journey to the Sanctuary together with those who have gone before him, and gives a tantalizing account of a place described by explorers as 'more inaccessible than the North Pole'.
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About the Author :
Hugh Thomson read English at Cambridge University.
One of Britain's leading explorers of Inca settlements, he has led many research expeditions to the Peruvian Andes and has discovered several Inca ruins. He has documented his travels through Peru in The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland and Cochineal Red: Travels through Ancient Peru. Another of his books, Tequila Oil: Getting Lost in Mexico, was serialized by BBC Radio 4. For The Green Road into the Trees, he returned to Britain to write about his own country. It won the inaugural Wainwright Prize for Nature and Travel Writing.
Hugh is also a film-maker and has won many awards for his documentaries, including Indian Journeys with the writer William Dalrymple, which won the Grierson Prize for Best Documentary Series, and the acclaimed Dancing in the Street: A Rock and Roll History, for which he won a BAFTA nomination. With journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, he directed Afghanistan Unveiled for CNN and C4, a devastating indictment of the Afghan treatment of women. His recent BBC series Treasures of the Indus explored the Buddhist heritage in Pakistan and Mughal influence in India.
More details can be seen at www.thewhiterock.co.uk
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