My Journey to Lhasa: The Personal Story of the Only White Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City

"What decided me to go to Lhasa was, above all, the absurd prohibition which closes Thibet." One of the great travel classics, published in 1927 and considered one of the best adventure books of the last 100 years by Outside magazine, My Journey to Lhasa recounts Alexandra David-Neel's 1924 journey through unknown territory to the forbidden city of Lhasa. On her fifth expedition in remote Asia, disguised as a pilgrim, she traveled with her adopted son, a native Tibetan named Yongden. They made a treacherous midwinter trek over the mountains to Lhasa, encountering bands of robbers, corrupt military agents, bouts of starvation, and wild animals. Despite all the obstacles, David-Neel showed incredible determination. A professional opera singer, a practicing Buddhist, a historian of religion, and a linguist, David-Neel lived in Tibet for more than fourteen years. The first Western woman to be received by any Dalai Lama, the author "involves us intensely in a world that no longer exists--that of free Tibet. . . . Fervent and admirably unsentimental." -- The New York Times Book Review