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Book of the Week: Colin Thubron - To a Mountain in Tibet

Book of the Week: Colin Thubron - To a Mountain in Tibet: Episode 4

Factual: Travel

To a Mountain in Tibet

Episode 4

Colin Thubron - To a Mountain in Tibet

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Colin Thubron - To a Mountain in Tibet, Episode 4

The author hears about explorer Sven Hedin and his adventures around Mount Kailas.

The author hears about remarkable explorer Sven Hedin and his adventures around Mount Kailas in 1907. Read by Stephen Boxer.

"By trekkers' standards our party is small and swift: a guide, a cook, a horse-man, myself. We move scattered above the river, while loan traders pass us the other way, leading their stocky horse and mule-trains between lonely villages. They look fierce and open, and laughingly meet your eyes. The delicacy of the plains has gone..."

Renowned travel writer Colin Thubron is about to climb Mount Kailas in Tibet, one of the holiest places in the world and hardly visited by westerners. Its slopes are rugged, glacial, and peopled by the toughest types alive. Its slopes are also full of stories: Hindu and Buddhist tales of struggle, devotion and intrigue. But on from these lower reaches, Kailas's peak rises sacrosanct. Forbiddingly distant. And it is here that Thubron casts his gaze, then walks towards, as listeners can discover in his new account.

4. Few westerners make it to Mount Kailas and its majestic lakes.Then the author hears about the remarkable explorer Sven Hedin and his adventures thereabouts in 1907...

Reader Stephen Boxer.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Travel writer Colin Thubron's account of climbing the holy Mount Kailas in Tibet

Travel writer Colin Thubron's account of climbing the holy Mount Kailas in Tibet. Read by Stephen Boxer

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