Trans-Himalaya. Discoveries and Adventures in Tibet. Sven Hedin. London: Macmillan & Company, Limited Edition. 1909-1913. Swedish explorer, geographer and illustrator Sven Hedin made four major expeditionary trips to Asia throughout his lifetime. In the first, from 1893 to 1897, he visited the Pamir Mountains, travelled through the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang Region of Western China and across the Taklamakan Desert where he visited the 1500 year old abandoned cities of Dandan Oilik and Kara Dung. In April of 1896 he discovered Lake Bosten, one of the largest inland bodies of water in Central Asia. Dedicated to the Prince of Wales, the present volume provides a record of his nearly four years' travels throughout Asia, with nearly three hundred illustrations from sketches and photographs by him. Some of the wooden cupboards in my father’s library used to be locked. It housed precious books. Trans-Himalaya was one of them. My father used to take a siesta in the afternoon. On returning from school in the late afternoon I used to steal these books and take them to the terrace. There underneath the water tank I would pry upon these books. With the fading yellow setting light I discovered The Himalayas as I opened the book and like a concertino out poured the ranges from the many folds.
Trans-Himalaya. Discoveries and Adventures in Tibet.
