Includes bibliographical references (pages 532-550) and index.

Pilgrims -- Origins -- The First Explorers -- Lost Kingdoms -- The Architects of Xanadu -- The Rise of Gorkha -- The High Road to Tibet -- Trade Wars -- The Hard Road to Sagauli -- Mapping the Himalaya -- The Tyrant and the Scholar -- Crossing Borders -- 'Forbidden' City -- The Plant Hunters -- The First Mountaineers -- Everest Diplomacy -- Utopias -- Summit Fever -- Songs from a Dark Cell -- Claiming Chomolungma.

"A magisterial history of the Himalaya: an epic story of peoples, cultures, and adventures among the world's highest mountains. For many years, 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 an astonishing diversity of indigenous and local cultures, as well as a crossroads for trade, and a meeting point and conflict zone for the world's superpowers. Here Jesuit missionaries exchanged technologies with Tibetan Lamas, Mongol Khans employed Nepali craftsmen, the East India Company grappled for dominance with China's emperors, and independent India confronts Mao's Communists and their successors. Spanning millennia, from its earliest inhabitants to the present conflicts over Tibet and Everest, and populated by a cast of colorful characters, Himalaya explores the history, culture, climate, geography, and politics of the Himalaya for a soaring account of life at the "roof of the world.""--

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