Nepal is renowned for its temples, shrines, palaces, amazing mountains and jungles, and colorful festivals. Ever since it began admitting tourists in the early 1950s, its remarkable blend of cultures, traditions, and languages has stirred the longings and fantasies of travelers of every stripe. The foreign spiritual seeker soon discovers that there are more temples, gompas, gurus, sadhus, and rinpoches in Nepal than cereal brands in the U.S. This collection celebrates the country with pieces by Peter Matthiessen, Jeff Greenwald, Meg Lukens Noonan, Broughton Coburn, Diane Summers, Jimmy Carter, Susan Vreeland, and Jan Morris.
By the time you read the first of these "Traveler's Tales," you'll be flipping to the back of the book to find out more about how to get to Nepal. The country's beguiling mysteries are revealed by teachers, musicians, photographers, poets, and authors such as Peter Matthiessen and Broughton Coburn. Carefully selected quotes from other writers end every section, helping to give another perspective on each theme. Charlie Pye-Smith sums up the essence of this collection in Travels in Nepal: A Sequestered Kingdom: "I believe that there are a few memories which we carry with us beyond death and from which we shall never be free.... Perhaps it is just a smile or a strand of hair or the smell of warm breath, caught in a chunk of light and time and frozen like a fly in amber. But sometimes there is more than that, a whole world with movement and sound and changing colour."
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