Pamela Logan

'(Logan) writes of getting to Lhasa with all the wistfulness of Chekhov's three sisters dreaming of Moscow.'-The New York Times Book Review

In the fortress that is Tibet no place is more remote than the province of Kham and no people more elusive than the Khampa, the fierce horsemen who for twenty-five years waged a relentless guerrilla war against the Chinese occupation. In this breathtakingly vivid book, another kind of warrior sets out to find them. Pamela Logan holds a third-degree black belt in karate-and she brings to her search for the Khampa the same discipine, concentrated attention, and disregard for limits that helped her master her martial art.

In Among Warriors, Logan cycles, hitchhikes, and treks across the windswept plateaus and icy mountain passes of eastern Tibet. She drinks tea with monks and herdsmen, dodges Chineses police, and watches in awe as religious pilgrims inch their way toward Lhasa by prostrating themselves at every body length. Writing with vast sensory power and sympathy for an embattled culture, Logan produces a gem of travel writing that will captivate anyone interested in Buddhism, the martial arts, or one of the world's last inaccessible regions.

'In the tradition of Peter Mattiessen's Snow Leopard, this extraordinary book will fascinate and enrich those interested in Buddhism, Tibetan culture, or anyone who chooses to push themselves to their physical limits.'-Bodhi Tree Bookstore Magazine

Contents

Maps
1 Asia
2 The Tibetan plateau
3 Amdo, Golok, and Kham
4 The Karakoram Highway
5 Nepal trekking routes
Prevace
1 In the beginning
2 In Tibet
3 Kumbum
4 Teachers
5 A hard ride
6 Labrang
7 Compassion
8 'Know the enemy, and know yourself'
9 Kham
10 A Tibetan friend
11 Pilgrims
12 The men in green
13 Attachment
14 Release
15 Return to Kham
16 On a pilgrimage with Tibetans
17 Palpung
18 Baiya
19 Unexpected meeting
20 The koan of unfulfilled longing
21 Changing scenery
22 Full circle
23 Eh Hol!
24 The ninety-ninth mile
25 The last practice
References and bibliography
Guide to pronouncing foreign terms
Glossary… (mer)

Adventurer and martial arts pilgrim Pamela Logan recounts her remarkable journey through the wilds of eastern Tibet in search of both inspiration for her karate practice and knowledge of the famed warrior tribes of that region. Her goal is Kham, whose warriors-the Khampas-are renowned for their ferocity, banditry and ruthlessness. Overcoming mountains, snowstorms, sickness and police interference, using all of her resources to gain entraince to both the physical and spiritual Tibet hidden from Westerners, Logan traces routes used by famous Himalayan travelers Alexandra David-Neel and Peter Matthiessen-and blazes some new trails of her own.

Biking and hitchhiking, traveling on horseback and on foot, she explores a spectacularly rugged region that since the Chinese occupation of Tibet has been closed to outsiders. Along the way Logan meets Muslim farmers and Tibetan monks, Western pilgrims and Chinese police; her journey also brings her face to face with Tibet's incredible prostrating pilgrims. After nine months of travel, she at last glimpses the dangerous horseback warriors-the Khampas. From there and other experiences she pieces together a spiritual connction between her martial arts training and Tibetan Buddhism. As she explores the heart of Kham, she discovers a kind of courage that gives new meaning to the word 'warrior'-and is an unexpected source of inspiration for her martial arts. This remarkable book will fascinate anyone intrested in Buddhism and Tibetan culture as well as those who choose to push their physical and spiritual limits-travelers, athletes, martial artists and pilgrims of all stripes.

Pamela Logan holds a third-degree black belt in shotokan karate under Master Tsutomu Ohshima, whose direct student she has been for 18 years. Born in Chicago in 1959, she earned a doctorate in aerospace science from Stanford University. In 1992 she assumed the post of Director of Research for the China Exploration and Research Society in Hong Kong. At present, she is managing a project to restore two Tibetan monasteries visited by her in the course of her 1991 Among Warriors adventures. With well-known explorer How Man Wong she is also working with radar images obtained by NASA's Space Shuttle, looking for signs of lost cities on China's Silk Road. As a freelance writer and photojournalist, her work has appeared in numerous publications including the The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor and Asia Magazine. Now based in southern California, she spends much of her time in the Far East.

Contents

Maps
1 Asia
2 The Tibetan plateau
3 Amdo, Golok, and Kham
4 The Karakoram Highway
5 Nepal trekking routes
Prevace
1 In the beginning
2 In Tibet
3 Kumbum
4 Teachers
5 A hard ride
6 Labrang
7 Compassion
8 'Know the enemy, and know yourself'
9 Kham
10 A Tibetan friend
11 Pilgrims
12 The men in green
13 Attachment
14 Release
15 Return to Kham
16 On a pilgrimage with Tibetans
17 Palpung
18 Baiya
19 Unexpected meeting
20 The koan of unfulfilled longing
21 Changing scenery
22 Full circle
23 Eh Hol!
24 The ninety-ninth mile
25 The last practice
References and bibliography
Guide to pronouncing foreign terms
Glossary… (mer)

This is travel writing at its best. Among Warriors: A Woman Martial Artist in Tibet by Pamela Logan is pure joy for the traveler, for the journeyer within us. Inspiring, insightful, and exhilarating Pamela took me on a road that few have traveled in Tibet. Weaved into the vast desolate and beautiful landscape of Tibet is Pamela's personal quest as a martial artist for the famed warriors called the Khams.

I haven't read too many travel books - simply because the few that I have read seem either awfully too self-centered or a personal guide book. Among Warriors is neither - it is a personal journey, true, but nowhere does Pamela come across as self-centered, nor does she lace her words with long, painful descriptions that detract from the story. If I need to know how Tibet is, I need not read a travel book,Lonely Planet, the Internet, and Rough Guides would do - but if I need to feel Tibet, move through its people, and engage with its splendor, then I need a travel book, and Among Warriors fills that need. Anyone who is a traveler, please don't think twice - just read this book. If I have to gripe, it is about the ending - a bit too long drawn out for me, and it is only in the last few pages that Pamela forgets to weave the story, and instead becomes a travel guide. But that is small crime indeed for one of the best travel books I have ever read.… (mer)