Himalayas Abode Of Light

Roerich recounts his journeys to more than fifty monasteries and his meetings with lamas eager to share their spiritual insights and heritage with the Western world. His expeditions crossed thirty-five mountain passes, and included here are dramatic descriptions of snow blindness, mountain floods, and mysterious electrical phenomena, as well as intimate depictions of daily life in the rigorous yet beautiful Himalayan environment.

This book studies India’s historical, socio-cultural, and trade linkages with Inner Asia. Inner Asia includes the landlocked regions within East Asia and North Asia that are part of today's Western China, Mongolia, the Russian Far East, and Siberia. The volume examines issues of geopolitics, geoeconomics, climate change, regional cooperation, and discusses the importance of the fabled Silk Road for the countries of Inner Asia. It also analyses the impact India has wielded upon the region through its cultural traits and how Buddhism has remained a binding force between the people of the two regions. Lucid and topical, this book will be of useful for scholars and researchers of Asian studies, central Asian studies, area studies, geopolitics, international trade, international relations, defence and strategic studies, diplomacy and foreign policy, and political studies. It will also be of interest to policymakers, bureaucrats, diplomats and think tanks.

Himalayas - the abode of snow, Giri Raj - the monarch of all mountains, is the mightiest, youngest, highest, most inspiring, amazing, and incredible fold mountain chain in the world. This book deals with the location, description, and significance of the places of religious and spiritual importance, like Rishikesh, Haridwar, Panch Prayag, the Char Dhams namely, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, the Hemkund Saheb, the Valley of Flowers, Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, Amarnath, Kailash and Mansarovar. the Himalayas have lured people to this region since ancient times. References about the Himalayas are found even in the Rig Veda, the oldest scripture in the world. the Himalayas mean different things to different people. For sages, saints and seekers, it is a spiritual centre beyond comparison. Since time immemorial, ascetics have climbed the great heights in search of peace and wisdom.

Eurasia has assumed importance in the post-Soviet period and the peoples of Siberia have distinctive historico-cultural similarities with the Indian Himalayas due to common traditions and Buddhist culture. The Eurasianism of Russia brings it closer to India in historico-cultural, political and economic terms. Another important player in Eurasia is Kazakhstan, which has been highlighting the importance of Eurasianism. These relations provide an opportunity for India to engage in collaborative endeavours with the Eurasian countries. This book provides detailed analyses on the historico-cultural linkages between Eurasia (Buryatia, Khakassia ,Tuva and Altai Republics of Russian Federation) and India through history. It also examines the process of the revival of indigenous traditions in the region in the post-Soviet period, the importance of the Eurasian vector in Russian and Kazakhstan’s foreign policy and the development of the Eurasian Economic Union and the implications this will have for India. Eminent academics and area specialists from Buryatia, Altai, Khakassia, Moscow, Kazakhstan and India have contributed to this book which provides a first hand view of the linkages between India and the Siberian region of India. Eurasia and India also includes rare photographs of the traces of Indian culture in Siberia. Offering a new understanding of the significant and strategic Indian ties to Eurasian states, this book will be of interest to academics studying Eurasian and Central Asian society and geopolitics, International Relations and South and Central Asian Studies.

Russian painter, explorer, and mystic Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) ranks as one of the twentieth century’s great enigmas. Despite mystery and scandal, he left a deep, if understudied, cultural imprint on Russia, Europe, India, and America. As a painter and set designer Roerich was a key figure in Russian art. He became a major player in Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and with Igor Stravinsky he cocreated The Rite of Spring, a landmark work in the emergence of artistic modernity. His art, his adventures, and his peace activism earned the friendship and admiration of such diverse luminaries as Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, H. G. Wells, Jawaharlal Nehru, Raisa Gorbacheva, and H. P. Lovecraft. But the artist also had a darker side. Stravinsky once said of Roerich that “he ought to have been a mystic or a spy.” He was certainly the former and close enough to the latter to blur any distinction. His travels to Asia, supposedly motivated by artistic interests and archaeological research, were in fact covert attempts to create a pan-Buddhist state encompassing Siberia, Mongolia, and Tibet. His activities in America touched Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s cabinet with scandal and, behind the scenes, affected the course of three US presidential elections. In his lifetime, Roerich baffled foreign affairs ministries and intelligence services in half a dozen countries. He persuaded thousands that he was a humanitarian and divinely inspired thinker—but convinced just as many that he was a fraud or a madman. His story reads like an epic work of fiction and is all the more remarkable for being true. John McCannon’s engaging and scrupulously researched narrative moves beyond traditional perceptions of Roerich as a saint or a villain to show that he was, in many ways, both in equal measure.