From Heaven Lake : Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet

by Vikram Seth

Release Date: 12 October, 1987

Edition: Paperback

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Unique viewpoint

Very well done travelogue around China. A perfect counterpoint to Salzman's Iron & Silk. Salzman stayed in one spot for his sojourn in China; Seth, although he spent two years at Nanjing University, here is concerned with an impromptu hitchhiking trip through western China and Tibet. Seth isn't afraid to put some dangerous questions to his hosts and fellow travelers--questions about the cultural revolution and Red Guard, how life is now under the communists compared with before, could Tibet be a separate country once more? But the best thing about this book is Seth's viewpoint: an Indian writing about China and Tibet for an English/American audience. He takes the time to ruminate on the relations between the countries and the conditions in each country. In particular, his comparison of the living conditions of the poor and aged in China (cared for, if not greatly) and India (left destitute) was eye-opening.

Award Winning Travel Book

I am not a reader of travel books, but could not put this one down. Seth not only was, by hitchhiking through forbidden areas, able to see and experience things way off the usual tourist agenda but was then able to turn his remarkable observations and astonishing prose into an unforgettable read. His journey begins when as a student in China he decides to break away from his keepers and exit the country through forbidden Tibet to Nepal. From the start of his hitchhiking adventure through his visit to Lhasa, and ultimately his walking past armed guards into Nepal never sure if he would be shot or not, his audacity excites, and his insights amaze. This ranks high with me in his short list of published works. Winner of the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for best travel book of the year 1983.