Skip to content
You are not logged in |Login  
     
Limit search to available items
Book Cover
book
BookBook
Author Alter, Stephen.

Title Becoming a mountain : Himalayan journeys in search of the sacred and the sublime / Stephen Alter.

Publication Info. New York : Arcade Publishing, 2015.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Avon Free Public Library - Adult Department  796.522 ALTER    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Noah Webster Library - Non Fiction  796.522 ALTER    Check Shelf
Edition First North American edition.
Description 266 pages : illustration ; 24 cm
Summary "Stephen Alter was raised by American missionary parents in the hill station of Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he and his wife, Ameeta, now live. Their idyllic existence was brutally interrupted when four armed intruders invaded their house and viciously attacked them, leaving them for dead. The violent assault and the trauma of almost dying left him questioning assumptions he had lived by since childhood. For the first time, he encountered the face of evil and the terror of the unknown. He felt like a foreigner in the land of his birth. This book is his account of a series of treks he took in the high Himalayas following his convalescence-to Bandar Punch (the monkey's tail), Nanda Devi, the second highest mountain in India, and Mt. Kailash in Tibet. He set himself this goal to prove that he had healed mentally as well as physically and to re-knit his connection to his homeland. Undertaken out of sorrow, the treks become a moving soul journey, a way to rediscover mountains in his inner landscape. Weaving together observations of the natural world, Himalayan history, folklore and mythology, as well as encounters with other pilgrims along the way, Stephen Alter has given us a moving meditation on the solace of high places, and on the hidden meanings and enduring mystery of mountains. "-- Provided by publisher.
Subject Alter, Stephen -- Travel -- Himalaya Mountains Region.
Mountaineering -- Himalaya Mountains.
Mountaineering -- Psychological aspects.
Victims of violent crimes -- Himalaya Mountains Region -- Biography.
Victims of violent crimes -- Psychology.
Psychic trauma -- Rehabilitation.
Place attachment -- Himalaya Mountains Region.
Himalaya Mountains Region -- Description and travel.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs.
Himalaya Mountains Region -- Social life and customs.
ISBN 9781628725100 (hardback)
1628725109 (hardback)
-->
Add a Review