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

Involves us intensely in a world that no longer exists--that of free Tibet. . . . Fervent and admirably unsentimental . . . [David-Neel] had to exercise the utmost ingenuity to survive.-- New York Times Book ReviewOriginally published in 1927, My Journey to Lhasa is a powerful, entertaining record of danger and achievement that has become one of the most remarkable and inspirational of all travelers' tales. Disguised as a beggar, Alexandra David-Neel tackled some of the roughest terrain and climate, suffered primitive travel conditions, frequent outbreaks of disease, the ever-present danger of border control, and the military to become the first woman to penetrate Tibet and reach Lhasa--and the first Western woman to have been received by any Dalai Lama.