Author: Thomas K Shor
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 283
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9780143415466
Description
A Step Away from Paradise tells the story of Tibet’s Tulshuk Lingpa, a visionary lama who in 1962 launched an expedition to what he and his followers believed to be the land of immortality described in twelfth-century Tibetan tradition.
With over 300 disciples, he ventured up a remote Himalayan mountain at the Nepal-Sikkim border in order to ‘open the way’ to a hidden land of plenty found on no map.
Fifty years later, Thomas K. Shor tracks down the surviving members of this visionary expedition and entwines their remarkable stories of faith and adventure with his own quest to discover the reality of this land known as Beyul.
What emerges is a breathtaking story alive with possibility, bringing the reader as close to the Hidden Land as a book possibly can. As the astounding account unfolds, the reader is sure to repeat the question constantly raised by the author in his interviews: And then what happened?
The story recalls and evokes one of humanity's oldest aspirations — that of finding a stairway to paradise.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1 – A Crack in the World
Chapter 2 – Into the Rabbit Hole
Chapter 3 – Eloping Over Mountain Passes
Chapter 4 – Behind the Heart of the Buddha of Compassion
Chapter 5 – Invasions and Incarnations
Chapter 6 – The Place of the Female Cannibal
Chapter 7 – Sacrifices, Sponsors and Caves
Chapter 8 – The Cell
Chapter 9 – The Discovery
Chapter 10 – The Reconnaissance
Chapter 11 – Geshipa
Chapter 12 – The Auspicious Centre
Chapter 13 – The Return
Chapter 14 – Lepcha Tales
Chapter 15 – Monarchical Machinations
Chapter 16 – A Historical Digression
Chapter 17 – Royal Inquiries
Chapter 18 – The Miracle
Chapter 19 – The Flight
Chapter 20 – Opening the Gate
Chapter 21 – The Aftermath
Epilogue
Glossary
Dramatis Person
Place
Acknowledgements
Photo Credits