The travels of Fa-hien / H.A. Giles (tr.) -- An emperor's sojourn / Jahangir -- Slipping into Tibet / Sarat Chandra Das -- Report of a route-survey ; Made by pundit [nain singh] from Nepal to Lhasa ; Between wolves and shipwreck / Sven Hedin -- The train to Darjeeling / Mark Twain -- The abominable snowman / Frank S. Smythe -- Mutiny on Kangchenjunga / Aleister Crowley -- The summit / Edmund Hillary -- To Namdapha and Tawang / Anil Yadav -- Meditations ; Fragment from the Adi Purana / Jinasena -- Just a strand in Shiva's hair: face to face with the axis of the world / Arundhathi Subramaniam -- Himalaya on a pushcart / Dharamvir Bharati -- Travels in India as an unknown sannyasin / Swami Vivekananda -- The travels of Swami Haridas / Rahul Sankrityayan -- In search of the snow leopard / Peter Matthiessen -- Sunlight on Kinchinjunga / Francis Younghusband -- Ladakh sojourn ; A mountain retreat / Vicki Mackenzie -- Mountains in my blood / Ruskin Bond -- Life ; A night in a garhwal village / Ruskin Bond -- Springs / Jemima Diki Sherpa.;Intimate, exhilarating writings on adventure, meditation, and life in the captivating wildness of the Himalayan Mountains-with contributions from Amitav Ghosh, Mark Twain, Rabindranath Tagore, Peter Matthiessen, and more. For some, the Himalaya is a frontier against which people test themselves. Others find refuge and tranquility in the mountains, a place where they can seek their true selves, perhaps even God. Over millennia, the mountains have cradled civilization itself and nurtured teeming, irrepressible life. With over thirty essays, this exhilarating anthology offers a dazzling range of voices that reveal accounts of great ascents and descents-from reflecting on a deadly avalanche to searching for a snow leopard and enjoying the simple pleasure of riding a handcar down a railway track. These diverse writings bring to life the spirit of the Himalaya in an unparalleled panorama. Contributors include: Amitav Ghosh Mark Twain Rabindranath Tagore Peter Matthiessen Edmund Hillary Aleister Crowley Andrew Harvey Vicki Mackenzie Sarat Chandra Das H.A. Giles (Trans.) Jahangir Sven Hedin Frank S. Smythe Anil Yadav Jinasena Arundhathi Subramaniam Dharamvir Bharati Swami Vivekananda Rahul Sankrityayan Francis Younghusband Ruskin Bond Jemima Diki Sherpa Kirin Narayan Jawaharlal Nehru Abdul Wahid Radhu Jim Corbett Bill Aitken Hridayesh Joshi Dom Moraes Manjushree Thapa.