Chomolungma Sings the Blues
Travels Round Everest
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group
Published:27th Sep '01
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Sheds a new and important light on the mountain and its people
Sheds a new and important light on the mountain
and its people
If there is one mountain that is known across the whole world, it must be the highest - Everest. To the people who live at its feet she is Chomolungma, Goddess Mother of the World. The disappearance of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine close to the summit in 1924 lent the mountain a tragic romanticism, of young men risking everything for a dream. When Norgay Tenzing and Ed Hillary became the first men to stand on the summit in 1953, it was the crowning glory for the coronation of Elizabeth II.
But nearly fifty years on, there are scores of ascents nearly every season. There are stories of bodies and heaps of garbage abandoned on the slopes, of the loss of cultural identity among the Sherpas and Tibetans who live at the foot of Everest. Ed Douglas spent parts of 1995 and 1996 travelling in Nepal and Tibet, talking to politicians and environmentalists, to mountaineers and local people. He found a poor region struggling to develop, and encountering environmental problems far greater than rubbish left by climbers. Local people are resourceful and cultured, reliant on the work the mountaineers and the mountain provide, but striving to find a balance between the new and the old.
“Ed Douglas has written a book, not so much about the mountain – the Chomolungma of the title – but about the whole are of the surrounding territory as it is nowadays: overrun, garbage-ridden, packaged, ‘spoiled’, but still dangerous, still throat-catchingly beautiful. Douglas is a sparkling writer, with a great turn of phrase.” -- Katherine Whitehorn, The Observer
“I had no prior interest in Everest or mountaineering, until I read Ed Douglas’ Chomonlungma Sings the Blues. Well written, it is particularly insightful on the damaging effects of adventure tourism.” -- Russell Celyn Jones, ‘Summer Choice’, The Times
“A wise and useful book, which has been asking to written ever since Hunt’s successful expedition in 1953. Douglas is a first-class journalist, whose interest in the Himalaya and its people enables him to get in close.” -- David Craig, Literary Review
“A very accomplished climber and noted commentator on climbing-related subjects, Douglas is here more interested in the resonance that Everest has both for the local peoples and the visitors to Nepal and Tibet. He writes elegantly and perceptively with a light and informed touch.” -- Jon Tinker, The Guardian
“Instead of gazing up at the mountain, Douglas does something which hardly anyone else bothers to do: he looks down, at the people and the life around it.” -- Charles Arthur, The Independent
“The authority and balanced judgements of this book will make it essential reading for those contemplating a trek to Tibet and Nepal.” -- Terry Gifford, Yorkshire Post
“What makes this book most readable is its humorous eye for detail, whether it is the outrageous décor of the Chinese hotel or the bridge near Namche Bazar, which he describes as ‘a slender suspension of wire, wood and disbelief.’” -- Stephen Venables, The Daily Telegraph
“Douglas’ book is refreshing and honest. An excellent geo-political travelogue that takes the reader under the surface of the happy smiling trekking holiday image of the Himalayas.” -- Roger Payne, High Mountain Sports
“One of the minor classics of modern mountain writing, telling you more about the truths and corruptions of our western approach to mountains and their indigenous peoples than any other title in this genre that I can bring to mind.” -- Jim Perrin, TGO magazine
ISBN: 9781841194004
Dimensions: 203mm x 127mm x 14mm
Weight: 268g
240 pages