After interviewing the Dalai lama in 1989 in Dharamsala, Buckley vowed: "I want to see as much as I can of the Tibetan world before the flame is snuffed out, to get cracking before it all disappears. Because according to the Dalai Lama, it's on the brink - and he should know." Buckley relates 13 trips from 1989 to 1999 through the areas of Tibetan culture - Tibet, Ladakh, Dharamsala India, Outer Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim.

The stories are: bicycling the high passes of Ladakh; Dharamsala and a chat with the Dalai Lama; through Mongolia and Amdo; visiting Lhasa; taking landcruiser tours near Lhasa; acting in a Chinese movie about the British invasion in Gyantse; visiting Guge Kingdom in western Tibet; trekking around Mount Kailash; trekking to Upper Mustang in Nepal; teaching young Tibetan refugees English near McLeod in India; a humourous account of a best selling autobiography of a Tibetan Lama from 1956 whose author turned out to be a fake; Bhutan; and Sikkim visiting Darjeeling, Gangtok and Kalimpong to see Kangchenjunga.

Buckley trekked to Lo Manthang in Upper Mustang in October 1995, where he had tea with the King. "The wind has, over the millennia, sculpted the canyon walls into surreal shapes - organ-pipe cliffs, fluted pillars, rock spires. Striking bands of colour appear in the hills: blue, grey, rust and green tones. ... The crystal clear vistas redefine your sense of space. Under piercing blue skies, this awesome display of wilderness resonates right through your bones, a high-altitude tonic."

I enjoyed Buckley's writing style, informative, insightful, humourous and entertaining. Like the Travelers series, this book is a great companion to travel guides before traveling to Tibetan areas.