First Russia, Then Tibet [Illustrated Edition]

by Robert Byron

Overview

Over the course of several months during 1931 and 1932, Robert Byron journeyed to three countries teetering on the brink of change.

In Russia, which was stricken by famine, Lenin had just died, Stalin’s dictatorship was in its infancy and the Great Terror had yet to begin. Having taken the first commercial flight to India, which took an astounding seven days, Byron was thrown into the tumultuous last years of the British Raj. Gandhi was imprisoned, while rioting and clashes between Hindus and Muslims had become commonplace. Finally Byron entered Tibet, the forbidden country. Exploring “The Land of Snows”, he saw Tibet as it was when the then Dalai Lama was still ensconced in the Potala Palace, twenty years before China’s invasion.

First Russia, Then Tibet is an invaluable first-hand account of transformative moments in periods of change and upheaval.-Print ed.

Richly illustrated throughout.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781787202306
Publisher:	Normanby Press
Publication date:	10/27/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	266
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Robert Byron (26 February 1905 - 24 February 1941) was a British travel writer, best known for his travelogue The Road to Oxiana. He was also a noted writer, art critic and historian.

Born in Middlesex and educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, he was a forceful advocate for the preservation of historic buildings and a founder member of the Georgian Group.

Byron travelled to widely different places, including Mount Athos, India, the Soviet Union, and Tibet. He forged his style of modern travel writing whilst travelling in Persia and Afghanistan, and wrote up his account of The Road to Oxiana (1937) in Peking, his temporary home.

Byron died during the Second World War in 1941 when the ship on which he was travelling, the SS Jonathan Holt, was torpedoed by a U-Boat off Cape Wrath, Scotland, en route to Egypt. He was 35 years old.