gems, early travel and exploration, Central Asia, China, Tibet

Published to critical acclaim and well known for many years afterwards this account of the journey across Mongolia to Lhasa in the early nineteenth century owes much of its success to the literary skills of its authors, made available in English for the first time by William Hazlitt and Paul Pelliot. Among other topics the chapters cover: The French mission of Peking, Tartar manners and customs, festivals, an interview with a Tibetan Lama, the flooding of the Yellow River, Tartar veterinary surgeons, irrigation projects, comparative studies between Catholicism and Buddhism, war between two living Buddhas, and the Chinese account of Tibet.