In Search of Shambhala (hardback)

Shambhala is another word for Nirvana, or Paradise. It is accessible to the enlightened but the path to it is long, possibly lasting many lifetimes.

In The Search for Shambhala, Elaine Brook goes looking for it in the high Himalayas of Nepal. To open the adventure she walks the length of Nepal, almost starving to death in the deserts of the west.

Then, and with gently increasing focus, as her further wanderings in the Himalayas become ever more remote and startling, Elaine begins to grasp what she must do to find, or perhaps simply glimpse, that elusive place.

She journeys to Mustang - where she is adopted as a sister by a princess. And to the Khumbu to study. Then towards Ganesh. There she makes and unveils a discovery which has stayed with me since I first read it many years ago.

Carron River Verdict

Walking the length of Nepal and nearly starving to death in the process ought to be enough for one book. But that remarkable journey serves only as an introduction to one of the late 20th century’s most remarkable mountain travellers.

We are never sure of the extent to which Shambhala is physical or metaphysical, but we are left in no doubt about its value and impact on those who seek enlightenment and potentially on humankind as a whole.

Curiously, Elaine offers no dates for her travels, as if their sequence is of no consequence to a search for something universal and therefore not needing an era.

One is left feeling that the idea at the centre of this story is urgently relevant throughout history, and therefore urgently relevant now. In fact, one can’t help feeling that in a world a great deal less harmonious than when Elaine was writing, it is more so than ever.

It almost goes without saying that any book with a foreword by His Holiness The Dalai Lama is special. Elaine must have held some special position to obtain it. Its mere existence adds considerable weight to the credibility of the book.

The Author

Elaine Brook is well-known among mountaineers for being one of the best rock-climbers of her generation - including an ascent The Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite - and for first ascents in the Andes. She has been on expeditions with the likes of Reinhold Messner and Doug Scott and wandered in Tibet without permits. Her trekking company, Himalayan Travel, became the go-to outfit of the 1980s and ‘90s for obtaining permits to visit rarely visited regions of the Himalaya. She has written three mountain travel books (the first one with Julie Donnelly), of which The Search for Shambhala is the third.

What you get

This is a quality first edition hardback with a stunning cover, and illustrations, maps and colour photographs. The books are sourced directly from the author, published and printed in 1996. They have been stored carefully and are as pristine as a thirty-year old book can be, but inevitably may show very slight signs of age.

Obviously, there is a limited supply of these! If you want one, now is the time.

Author: Elaine Brook

Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Hardback with dust jacket; 263 pages; 28 colour images; plus B&W illustrations and maps

FIRST edition

Published by Jonathan Cape

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