The Thumbnail Book Reviews

by John Q McDonald --- 22 November 2005

Yak Butter & Black Tea

A Journey into Tibet

by Wade Brackenbury

Throughout the history of Tibet and the literature of that remote country, there have been adventurers and travelers who have broken through first the Tibetan and then the Chinese cultural and national barriers to explore this exotic and mysterious place. In these stories, the common theme is that of the lone explorer, often lying, disguising himself, and evading the authorities to plunge as deep into the Himalayan plateau as possible. To this day, such an approach is possible. Thus this book, by young Wade Brackenbury, who, with a French photographer and Chinese-French translator, tries to break through Chinese restrictions to trek through extreme south-eastern Tibet to the forbidden land of the Drung Valley. The photographer, Pascal, has initiated the expedition after meeting Brackenbury on an earlier journey to China. Brackenbury, who is addicted to this sort of adventure, goes along as a mountain guide. It turns out that Pascal is a bit gun-shy for going off alone into the mountains, and his overcautious nature runs afoul of the authorities, who prevent the expedition from reaching its forbidden goal. Brackenbury, fed up with Pascal's hesitation, heads out alone across the mountains and, indeed, finds the Drung Valley. This is the land of a tiny ethnic minority numbering fewer than five thousand. They are distinct from Tibetans and the Chinese, but Brackenbury doesn't find them as culturally isolated as Pascal had thought. He may, indeed, have been the first Westerner to trek through the Drung Valley, but the modern era had already begun seeping into the fading Drung culture.

Throughout the journey, the travelers depend upon the kindness of Tibetan people. They are regularly taken in and fed when they appear as if out of nowhere into these remote villages. These Tibetans had yet to become cynical of the intentions of Western travelers. It is a blessing to the travelers, but what of a people so trusting in the face of a competitive world? This type of adventure travel may yet be still possible, but it is, no doubt, going to vanish someday. The book itself is engaging, an adventure told with sincerity and a direct style. Some of what Brackenbury encounters could have stood more in-depth description, but the journey is compelling. Throughout, the travelers are obsessed with protecting their photographic film, but the book, disappointingly, has no pictures of the places through which they traveled.

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