Kashmir by Francis Younghusband

Back of the Book This book called 'Kashmir' was written at the request of Edward Molyneux. Younghusband's descriptions went hand in hand with his paintings of the Valley by Molyneux. In the book, Younghusband declared his immense admiration of the natural beauty of Kashmir and its history.

About the Book This book called 'Kashmir' was written at the request of Edward Molyneux. Younghusband's descriptions went hand in hand with his paintings of the Valley by Molyneux. In the book, Younghusband declared his immense admiration of the natural beauty of Kashmir and its history. The book does not deal with the whole Kashmir state, which includes many outlying provinces, but with Kashmir Proper, with the world renowned valley of Kashmir, a saucer shaped value with a length of 84 miles, a breadth of 20 to 25 miles and a mean height of 5600 feet above sea level, set in the very heart of the Himalaya and corresponding in latitude to Damascus, to Fez in Morocco and to South Carolina.

The country with which one is most apt to compare it is, naturally, Switzerland. And Switzerland, indeed, has many charms and a combination of lake and mountain in which it excels Kashmir. But it is built on a smaller scale. There is not the same wide sweep of snow clad mountains. There is no place where one can see a complete circle of snowy mountains surrounding a plain of anything like the length and breadth of the Kashmir valley, for the main valleys of Switzerland are like the side valleys of Kashmir. And above everything there is not behind Switzerland what there is at the back of Kashmir and visible in glimpses from the southern side, a region of stupendous mountains surpassing every other in the world.

About the Author Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, KCSI, KCIE (31 May 1863 31 July 1942 in Dorset) was a British Army officer, explorer, and spiritual writer. He is remembered chiefly for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British expedition to Tibet, which he led, during which a massacre of Tibetans occurred, and for his writings on Asia and foreign policy. Younghusband held positions including British commissioner to Tibet and President of the Royal Geographical Society. Francis Younghusband was born in 1863 at Murree, British India (now Pakistan) to a British military family, being the second son of Major-General John W Younghusband and his wife Clara Jane Shaw. Clara's brother, Robert Shaw, was a noted explorer of Central Asia.

Younghusband was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society in 1919, and two years later became Chairman of the Mount Everest Committee which was set up to coordinate the initial 1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition to Mount Everest. He actively encouraged climbers, including George Mallory, to attempt the first ascent of Mount Everest and they followed the same initial route as the earlier Tibet Mission. Younghusband remained Chairman through the subsequent 1922 and 1924 British Expeditions.

**Contents and Sample Pages**