My Journey to Lhasa

This early-twentieth-century adventure travel memoir by a female explorer is “the sort of thriller yarn that keeps you up all night and is too soon over” (Ms.).

In this extraordinary mix of travelogue and autobiography, Madame Alexandra David-Néel details her 1923 expedition to Lhasa as the first Western woman to enter Tibet’s Forbidden City. Recounting how she traveled with her adopted son, posing as a beggar and relying on her fluency in Tibetan dialects and culture, David-Néel relates a story of survival among harsh conditions and the ever-present danger of being discovered as a white woman, as well as her triumphant meeting with the Dalai-Lama. A compelling narrative by an adventurer, explorer, and passionate student of Buddhism, My Journey to Lhasa is an inspiring work of travel literature by a remarkable woman.

“My Journey to Lhasa . . . involves us intensely in a world that no longer exists—that of free Tibet. . . . [David-Néel’s] descriptions of the landscape are fervent and her understanding of the Tibetans admirably unsentimental. Her Tibet is not at all the philosophers’ kingdom of Lost Horizon; it is a fierce . . . frequently dangerous place, where she had to exercise the utmost ingenuity to survive.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A lively account . . . and a classic portrait of Tibet, its region, and its people.” —The Bloomsbury Review

“David-Néel was indisputably a fearless traveler, a rogue’s rogue. Her account has the power to awe even today.” —Outside

“As a traveler, she has performed a brilliant feat.” —New Statesman