My Journey to Lhasa

The Personal Story of the Only White Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City

By: Alexandra David-Neel

Narrated by: Clay Lomakayu

An exemplary travelogue of danger and achievement by the Frenchwoman Madame Alexandra David-Neel of her 1923 expedition to Tibet, the fifth in her series of Asian travels and her personal recounting of her journey to Lhasa, Tibet's forbidden city.

In order to penetrate Tibet and reach Lhasa, she used her fluency of Tibetan dialects and culture, disguised herself as a beggar with yak hair extensions and inked skin, and tackled some of the roughest terrain and climate in the world.

With the help of her young companion, Yongden, she willingly suffered the primitive travel conditions, frequent outbreaks of disease, and the ever-present danger of border control and the military to reach her goal. The determination and sheer physical fortitude it took for this woman, delicately reared in Paris and Brussels, is an inspiration for men and women alike.

David-Neel is famous for being the first Western woman to have been received by any Dalai Lama and a passionate scholar and explorer of Asia. Hers is one of the most remarkable of all travel tales!

Public Domain (P)2019 Apollo Press

Not your everyday trek in Tibet

It took about 30 minutes to get accustomed to the narrator. In the end I felt he did a pretty good job.
It is remarkable that for 4 months David-Neel lived with austere privations. But what is also remarkable is to read stories of the hundreds others living daily lives of same privations.
Also to finally understand David-Neel was human craving and conniving for ancient manuscripts and treasures. Good stuff.

They should have had a female narrator

The book is wonderful, so I was so disappointed to have a male narrator telling a woman's story. It ruined it for me.

An astonishing tale.

This is a great autobiographical story of Alexandra's trek through Tibet. I listened to this after listening to her Mystery & Magic of Tibet book. That gave me context as to how she was able to pull off such a monumental feat. Amazing listen! I 100% recommend this.

Story good, Narration poor

As the title might imply, the book is dated and has racist tones, but nothing unusual for its time. The story kept my interest but the narrator not only mispronounced Asian words but many common English words. It would be okay if it was a Libravox volunteer reading the book but this was not a free book. I would have returned it for a refund but the rest of the book was good enough that I toughed it out.