No comments about Trek the Sahyadris.

No comments about Kingdoms of Experience: Everest, the Unclimbed Ridge (Travel).

No comments about The Land of the White Elephant: Sights and Scenes in South-Eastern Asia: A Personal Narrative of Travel and Adventure in Farther India, Embracing the Countries ... Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin-China. (1871-2).

No comments about Forest and Frontiers, or Adventures Among the Indians.

No comments about The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India.

4 comments about A World Away.

1. A World Away is a stunning collection of portraits that displays Snider's insight into the ancient cultures of his subjects as well as his technical excellence. Through these beautiful black and white photographs, the reader is transported to the remotest corners of Asia to glimpse lives virtually untouched by Western culture. Snider reveals the simple dignity and endurance of these people, and his book offers a rare window on their world.



2. A thoughtfully engaging and beautifully produced monograph which details the artist's travels thoughout Asia. It is no wonder the artist's work is in so many musuems and has been the subject of numerous exhibits.



3. For anyone who loves the art of photography and portraiture, adventure travel, or remote and ancient cultures, this book is a treasure. It contains haunting, sublime portraits of people of China, Tibet, Bhutan, and Ladakh: laughing children, wise elders, rakish young men, monks, families, laborers, and women, old and young, at work or dressed in ceremonial finery. The portraits were not taken in a studio, and the architecture of their settings -- monasteries, villages, shops, and streets -- are as intriguing as the subjects themselves.

   The poignancy and beauty of these portraits lies not only in their technical and artistic excellence, but also in their deft blending of contrasts: the exotic and the familiar, the ancient and the modern, the distinctly Asian, and the rare Western or perhaps global artifacts of our modern culture.

   A World Away merits one's attention again and again, as the portraits yield evocative details and depth of meaning with each viewing. This collection is a compassionate and eloquent account of the people encountered during the artist's Asian travels. It would make an elegant gift, and, since the book's impact is visual rather than verbal, the recipient need not speak English to enjoy it.




4. Larry Snider's book is filled with beautiful, sensitive photographs. I have seen Snider's works before, and it is a great pleasure to be able to "visit" them as often as I like by simply owning this volume.

1 comments about Where Three Empires Meet: A narrative of recent travel in Kashmir, western Tibet, Gilgit, and the adjoining countries.

1. Where Three Empires: A Narrative of Recent Travel In Kashmir, Western Tibet, Gilgit, and the Adjoining Countries, with a Map and 54 Illustrations by E.F.Knight, Longmans, Green, and Co. 1905, reprint Asian Educational Services, 1993, p. 528.
   
   The travel writer E. F. Knight is a find! This narrative travelogue of the 1890's allows us to accompany him on his way through many locations of the British Empire.
   
   The descriptive travel narrative is filtered through the experience of an Englishman before the decline of the British Empire. That said, with all it's bias, some what over inflated sense of superiority and all that goes along with this...Mr. Knight captures the rarefied air, the magnificence of the mountains, the variation in landscape, people, weather and delivers it to the reader.
   
   He transports the reader through a year of travels of British-occupied Kashmir. His description of Kashmiris, Ladakhis, Baltis, and all the tribal peoples through whose land he traverses is brought to life by the smells, the dirt, the friendliness, the guardedness of some and the open curiosity of others. An example was his description of playing golf in the mountains, where he enlisted local boys as caddies. He overhears locals input on what golf is and is not; it is viewed as ludicrous as there aren't the ponies usually included in local polo. The visual picture of these Brits on high mountain snowfield, playing golf to pass the time, paints an odd picture.
   
   At this time England was attempting to conquer parts of this vast land and build roads. Mr. Knight accompanied several of these campaigns as well as forged off on his own. There's adventure and enjoyment of all things physical. There is curiosity, of the polyhusbandry of Ladakhi women, the cloistered hiding of Musselman (Muslim) women from public view, the hordes of children in Musselman areas. He speculates on the population explosion due to polyandry compared to the contained population growth of Ladakhis. He interacts with the rich, the poor, the village tribal leaders, all in his efforts to find a common language. Much effort is driven by his desire to push on into and through these then non-European traveled lands.
   
   Much of his travel had nothing to do with people but rather crossing rope bridges over great crevasses, noting pack animal plummet over the edge of the narrow trails, and even a war maneuver and subsequent skirmishes. He hears the crack of ice with an avalanche ensuing.... more than once. This book includes photographs, which he took upon occasion. Where Three Empires serves as a historical document as well as a benchmark for travel writing.

No comments about The Highlands of Central India: Notes on Their Forests and Wild Tribes, Natural History, and Sports.

1 comments about Himalaya: The Making of the Film by Eric Valli.

1. This beautifully-designed comprehensive book gives the reader an insight into the lives of the small Tibetan tribe and what it takes to make a film where most living things don't survive. A touching story filled with information about the life of the region and the human relationships in and outside the film.

No comments about India.