Review of ‘To A Mountain in Tibet’ by Colin Thubron - Vintage Books

Review of ‘To A Mountain in Tibet’ by Colin Thubron - Vintage Books 

I picked the book the moment I sighted it amongst other books in the library. I had gone on one of the toughest treks (somehow completed) to Hampta Pass near Spitti Valley hiking from Manali. But this Kailash trek he undertook is probably one of the most challenging and toughest in the world. Is he a travelogue writer? Or is he an anthropologist? Is he a historian? Is he researching the various religions of the subcontinent? Or is he all these?

There are many treks to the base camp of major peaks in the Himalayas. Kailash which is also called Mahameru is thronged by the pilgrims for a circle (pariikrama) of the peak. Both Hindus and Buddhist pilgrims believe the circle of the mountain will cleanse all their sins. Millions of years ago Kailash and most of the Himalayas were under Tethya Sea. The Mansaarovar lake is very holy, and boating is not allowed in the lake. Sven Hedin, a British explorer boated extensively in the year 1907 was the second to boat on the lake and he was pulled up both by the media and the Government when he returned home. The history is the local governor was given the capital punishment fifty years earlier when a Scottish trekker boated for the first time ever.

The author sequentially narrates his expedition to circle around Mount Kailash, he is nostalgic about his father who served in India in the Uttarakand region in the army during the British era and the demise of his mother and shares many personal details as if he was part of a fiction. Mostly he is sober and very kind hearted. He feels much for the very poor families who entertain trekkers. Their homes are small and reveal their acute poverty. Tibetians are either believers of Bon, Buddhists or believing in both. There are still some black magic practices and tantrik practitioners. Hindus are pilgrims. Mythology is that only the Buddhist monk Milarepa was in a contest with a Bon magician and supernaturally reached the peak hiking seated on a beam of light. Over decades, many have perished in the avalanches and none goes up now. Padmasambava, Avalokitesvara and Dalai Lama are the most revered seers for the Buddhists. Air burial is an age-old Bon practice, but too crude for the remaining part of the world. The dead body is cut into several pieces and the bones broken meticulously for the vultures to devour. Any tiny part of the corpse that remains will hamper the soul’s freedom from rebirth. God of death Yama is common for all the three religions Bon, Hinduism and Buddhism. A pilgrim of Bon faith shares his wife with his brother. Leaving something on the mountain and taking a small pebble are the matters of faith. Many boulders are draped with shawls or other clothing. During the Cultural revolution many monasteries were destroyed and Tibetian Buddhists could rebuild only very few. Most of the pilgrims have little experience or exposure to hiking in severe desert conditions and minus temperature. Among the dead only Indians’ corpses are flown back home. The pilgrims prostrate to the mountain frequently as they do the circle around it. The faith and piety of the frail men and women mellows the trekker author.

If any writer carries a notion she is good at travelogue, the book will show the flow of narration from the depth of the heart that eclipses any other work and this book stands out on its sound research too. On the front wrapper John Simpson’s blurb reads,”I would rather read Colin Thubron than any other travel writer alive.”