The Hindustan-Tibet Road
The Hindustan-Tibet Road is a fascinating trek into the unknown, full of risk and adventure and rich in history and culture. Paddy O’Leary draws on his years of high-altitude exploration and the depth of his love for India to guide us on a spellbinding journey of discovery.
When mountaineer Paddy O’Leary found himself detained at an Indian police station, freezing and naked, it occurred to him that perhaps he had outstayed his welcome. But his fascination with this vast nation and its people not only kept him there but drew him back, again and again, to the disputed borderlands of North-West India where three of the world’s great nuclear powers have repeatedly clashed, sometimes violently. At the time, this was forbidden territory, its indigenous people peoples cut off, its secrets held close.
The intrepid climber was there when entry restrictions to the fascinating tribal area of Kinnaur were lifted. He immersed himself in Kinnauri culture and became the first Westerner to carouse at their bacchanalian festivals on mountain slopes, to explore deep valleys there and in nearby Spiti, to cross raging rivers and climb peaks never before visited by outsiders, even venturing across the borders to Chinese-ruled Xinjiang and Tibet.