Lamas of the Western Heavens

This travel narrative, drawn from Huc's 1851 Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie et le Thibet, records a French Lazarist missionary's overland journey from China into Mongolia and Tibet in the 1840s with his companion Joseph Gabet. Huc describes caravans, Buddhist monasteries, the daily rule of lamas, and the hardships of desert and high plateau, culminating in a stay at Lhasa before the party is expelled. The selection concentrates on the Tibetan volume, with summaries of the Chinese stages. The book is an eyewitness account of Inner Asian religion and travel, written by a Catholic observer among the lamaist communities he calls the western heavens.

Bound in dark blue cloth cover blocked with an image in grey and gold. Map endleaves printed black on cream. Mottled grey slipcase. Blue page tops.