Scraps Stuffs - Random musings from apun ka desh

A few days back I finished reading Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard. I loved the book and was sorry it was over. Usually I buy books and then don't get around to reading them until much later.

I'm beginning to suspect that you read a book when you are ready for it and not before.

Peter Matthiessen describes a journey he took, along with George Schaller, to the Inner Dolpo region of Nepal. This place is situated in northern Nepal bordering Tibet and most of the region can be classified as trans-Himalayan cold dessert. The author starts the foot journey in Pokhara in October 1973 and goes to the Inner Dolpo region and gets back to Kathmandu in December 1973. The whole trek is beautifully described and the scenery is described very well too. Word pictures. The external journey takes place along with the author's inner spiritual quest and he's nicely added Zen Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism and other philosophical thoughts too. Though he didn't get to see the Snow Leopard, both he and George Schaller are satisfied with the other things they saw and experienced - wolves, bharal and lots of birds. The best part I liked was the description of the changes in landscape from the foothills of the Himalaya in Pokhara, through the Himalayan region and through it to the start of the Tibetan plateau.

This book was a satisfying read and I plan to read it again sometime. Highly recommended.