Trans-Himalaya

This is the second of two describing Sven Hedin's 1905-08 trans-Himalaya expedition.
A review of book one can be found here: Trans-Himalaya Vol 1

The first half of this book is largely taken up with exploration of river sources followed by the many (many, many) high altitude lakes by boat. Those porters who carry the boat for Hedin must be pleased he finally makes good use of it - as other than a few river crossings it has played the part of luggage. To be honest this is a quite repetitive section of the book, as the method repeats, and the results are not particularly enthralling.

This however is followed by Hedin's tracing of a pilgrimage around Kang Rinpoche (Mout Kailash), which is perhaps the most interesting couple of chapters. I say tracing of the pilgrimage, because Hedin undertook it on a horse, and is repeatedly told that he gains no spiritual benefit unless he undertakes it on foot.

In the second half, things pick up again. Hedin hers that Britain and Russia have reached an agreement, and that they determine no one will explore Tibet for a period of three years, and they expect China to enforce the same. Hedin realises he can not continue in the fashion he has been going, and plans to release his entire entourage, and replace them with new, and that he will go in disguise. He puts the large part of his equipment (including the boat) into storage, and sets off again.

The book culminates when Hedin is again captured by the Tibetans, despite being in disguise (he assumes the position of a Ladaki traders assistant to his caravan leader). He is told he must retrace his route back out of Tibet, which he resists with fury, saying things like ‘you will kill me before I return on the same route'. He then basically negotiates to follow yet another route out of Tibet back to India, which is totally against the wishes of his captors, and the instructions from Lhasa, but then Hedin has an ability to get his way, while making it seem like the Tibetans are getting what they want!

And so right until the penultimate chapter, I was somewhat put out that there was no map included in my edition. I knew, having found the maps on the internet, that they were included in later editions. It wasn't until Hedin wrote a chapter which summarised his discoveries, and spoke of his publishers demands, that it became clear that he had much work to do to formulate his findings and notes into maps, and that his urgency to publish the book would not wait for his maps. His summary is extensive - too extensive to start describing here, and it is clear from his writing how passionate he is about Tibet. He is incredibly driven, ambitious and single minded, a fearsome negotiator, a reader of men, and a wily character.

I very much enjoyed these books, although I faded a little in the first half of this volume, but I suppose that can be seen as testament to documenting of all his discoveries. It is also worth noting I read a number of other books in between starting and finishing this volume.

Volume 1 I gave five stars. In this volume, the first half was slower, but the second half was equal to the V1. I consider 4.5 stars fair, but pushed it must be 4, rather than 5.

4 stars **