A Saga of the Wanchos of Arunachal Pradesh; A proud tribe of head hunters.An attack at Ninu in 1875 left many of a British Survey team dead. The British totally isolated the Wanchos until India gained independence. Today these tribals are a proud, modern and vibrant society. This is their story; a historical story never told before. A tale of beautiful Arunachal Pradesh, its evolution as a state; and of ts many tribes. Shawang is the fictitious protagonist. He and his wife, Chanyo, ...

No other land has captured man's imagination quite like Tibet. Hidden away behind the highest mountains on earth, and ruled over by a mysterious God-king, it was for centuries a land forbidden to all outsiders.In this remarkable and ultimately tragic narrative, Peter Hopkirk recounts the forcible opening up of this medieval Buddhist kingdom by inquisitive Western travellers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the race to reach Lhasa, Tibet's sacred capital.Th...

The definitive history of the Samurai, by acclaimed author of Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior"One could ask for no better storyteller or analyst than John Man." —Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The BiographyThe inspiration for the Jedi knights of Star Wars and the films of Akira Kurosawa, the legendary Japanese samurai have captured modern imaginations. Yet with these elite warriors who were bound by a code o...

A magisterial history of the Himalaya: an epic story of peoples, cultures, and adventures among the world’s highest mountains.For centuries, the unique and astonishing geography of the Himalaya has attracted those in search of spiritual and literal elevation: pilgrims, adventurers, and mountaineers seeking to test themselves among the world’s most spectacular and challenging peaks. But far from being wild and barren, the Himalaya has been home to a diversity of ind...

The antique Silk Road that connected the Chinese and Mediterranean Worlds for more than a millennium, facilitating the exchange of both goods and cultures, is widely known and celebrated. Less familiar is its more southerly equivalent, the ‘Ancient Tea-Horse Road’ that once linked the lush gardens of southwest China with the frigid wastelands of Tibet and – beyond – the torrid plains of northern India. The latter is also sometimes called the ‘Southern Silk Road’, though this is something o...

One of the greatest cities of the Himalaya, Kathmandu, Nepal, is a unique blend of thousand-year-old cultural practices and accelerated urban development. In this book, Thomas Bell recounts his experiences from his many years in the city—exploring in the process the rich history of Kathmandu and its many instances of self-reinvention.Closed to the outside world until 1951 and trapped in a medieval time warp, Kathmandu is, as Bell argues, a jewel of the art world, a carnival of sexu...

Stephen Turnbull, the world's leading authority on the samurai, goes beyond the battlefield to paint a picture of the samurai as they really were.This book explores the samurai within the context of an all-encompassing warrior culture that was expressed through art and poetry as much as through violence.Using themed chapters, Turnbull illuminates the samurai through their historical development and their relationship to the world around them – relationships...

In a small medieval palace on Kathmandu's Durbar Square lives Nepal's famous Living Goddess -a child as young as three who is chosen from a caste of Buddhist goldsmiths to watch over the country and protect its people. To Nepalis she is the embodiment of Devi (the universal goddess) and for centuries their Hindu kings have sought her blessing to legitimize their rule. Legends swirl about her, for the facts are shrouded in secrecy and closely guarded by dynasties of priests and caretakers. ...

The thirty-year-long civil war in Sri Lanka which ended in 2009 shook the island-nation. Now there is peace, rapid development - and a new government. But questions remain. What do Tamils and Sinhalese feel about their new country? What are their dreams for the future?Sri Lanka: The New Country is insightful and unusual reportage from the dispassionate eye of a foreign correspondent who covered the bloody conflict for two decades. It is anecdotal narrative at its best: about ordinary Sri L...

A journey through the world and culture of these elite Japanese warriors, filled with facts and photos.From lowly attendants (samurai literally means "those who serve") to members one of the world's most powerful military organizations, the samurai underwent a progression of changes to reach a preeminent position in Japanese society and culture. Even their eventual eclipse did not diminish their image as elite warriors, and they would live on in stories and films.

This second volume about Japan's samurai commanders covers the generals of the later years of the Age of the Warring States, a period when only the most able leaders survived.This was a time when the prowess of a commander was measured as much by his strategic and organizational abilities as by his individual fighting skills and he was expected to give as great a show of strength in the council chamber as on the battlefield.This book discusses the lives, ba...

A compact, illustrated account of the most decisive battle in Japanese history.Fought against the ritualised and colourful backdrop of Samurai life, Sekigahara was the culmination of a long-standing power struggle between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Hashiba Hideyoshi, two of the most powerful men in Japan. Armies of the two sides met on the plain of Sekigahara on 21 October 1600, in thick fog and deep mud. By the end of the day 40,000 heads had been taken and Ieyasu was ma...