Nepal- Off The Beaten Path: Travel Stories

About the Book Kesar Lall takes us into a Himalayan world of sun-drenched ridges over misty terraced valleys, of lowland thatched brick villages to drafty Sherpa and Tibetan stone chalets, from the steamy jungles of the Terai to the icy ramparts of the highest peaks. It is a world peopled with Tamangs and Gurungs, trident-carrying sadhus on their way to distant shrines, Tibetans moving in mule caravans, Sherpas spinning yeti tales around a campfire. Or Pan-like cowherds piping flutes, barelegged porters with muscles like ropes, old women bent under bundles of grass, laughing children, herds of goats.

One comes away from Kesar Lall's tales and essays with a sense of knowing Nepal much better.

Richard Critchfield Author of Villages, Those Days, An American looks at Britain.

Preface ALTHOUGH Nepal still lies off the beaten path for most travellers in the world, it no longer needs an introduction. A number of visitors have written down their impressions, memories and notions. Some of them have made Nepal a many-splendoured land while others claim to find nothing here. "The wildest dreams of Kew are the facts of Kathmandu," wrote the celebrated Rudyard Kipling without ever coming to Nepal. That was a century ago. In more recent years, Richard Critchfield, also a writer, after a visit to Kathmandu, has described it as "Cinderella before the ball."

The first book about Nepal in the English language, written by Colonel William Kirkpatrick and entitled "An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal, Being the Substance of Observations Made During a Mission to that Country in the Year 1783" was published in 1811 in London. A century later, in 1912, Percy Brown's "Picturesque Nepal" appeared, also in London, followed in 1928 by Percival Landon's "Nepal" in two volumes with a quotation from Marco Polo: "The country is wild and mountainous and is little frequented by strangers."

Marco Polo had not come to Nepal but it was possible that he had met with Arniko, the famous Nepalese architect in the court of Kublai Khan. Landon himself did not travel beyond the Kathmandu valley but he was provided with a great deal of material by the then Prime Minister, Maharja Chandra Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana (1901-29). Explaining Nepal's policy of isolation to Landon, the Maharaja said: "My friend, the English have at times difficulty in the government of India.

**Contents and Sample Pages**