The Snow Leopard (Penguin Nature Classics)

by Peter Matthiessen, Edward Hoagland

Release Date: June, 1996

Edition: Paperback

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Spectacular book

Spare, lyrical and honest, the Snow Leopard lifts the reader's mind to the high deserts of Nepal. Reading it is almost like spending an afternoon in quiet contemplation. I've read several books that deal with Zen and what makes this book work is that the author is unflinchingly honest about the internal journey that is at the heart of the book. He shares with the reader the mental baggage he brings with him, and that makes the external journey -- described in vivid detail -- seem all the more real. I can understand why other reviewers say they went to Nepal after reading it.

In Looking Much is Seen

The Snow Leopard is about a journey which appears to have only one purpose - to see a snow leopard, but it ends up being about so much more. Humanity, nature and the elements, religion and spiritualism - this book has it all.

I read this book only a couple of months ago and could not believe that it was written before I was born! It is so fresh and modern in feeling and context. It also reminds me of another excellent book that I have recently read called Going to Dolpo (writer Timothy Doyle). In both books the author walks into Dolpo in the Tibetan Himalayas, a remarkable accomplishment in itself. Both men are drawn into their own personal Buddhist pilgrimage. Far superior to the usual traveler yarns, I would recommend both these books to the independently-minded reader.