Piers Brendon
Propping up the Roof of the World
Tibet: An Unfinished Story
By Lezlee Brown Halper & Stefan Halper
Hurst & Co 367pp £20 order from our bookshop
Tibet has always been a realm of fantasy as much as a province of reality. Remote and inaccessible, this mountain fastness has spawned myths ever since Herodotus wrote about its giant gold-digging ants. It has been the haunt of fabulous beasts: the ape-like yeti and the one-footed theurang, the wind horse and the snow lion. Magical powers have been attributed to its people, from rapt oracles and wandering sadhus to the Dalai Lama himself, whose person was so holy, the first British governor-general of Bengal heard, ‘that his excrements are sold as charms at a great price’.
The theosophist Madame Blavatsky claimed that monks she had encountered in Tibet were capable of telepathy and telekinesis. Heinrich Himmler dispatched SS men to the roof of the world to discover the roots of the Aryan race. Inspired by exotic tales about everything from sky burials to the promise of
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'It is the ... sketches of the local and the overlooked that lend this book its density and drive, and emphasise Britain’s mostly low-key riches – if only you can be bothered to buy an anorak and seek.'
Jonathan Meades on the beauty of brutalism.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/castles-of-concrete
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma