Wonders of the Himalaya

Francis Younghusband was barely twenty years old when he set out in search of 'the true spirit of the Himalayas'. Written forty years later, this book takes a retrospective look at the two expeditions he made between 1886 and 1889 for which the Royal Geographic Society awarded him its Gold Medal. The first of these expeditions took him from Peking to Kashmir via a route that was 5,500 kilometers long. In the second, he explored the uncharted Karakoram and Pamir passes. Previously unpublished in Spanish, this work conveys with serenity the passion of his youth and the satisfaction he derived from those vast Himalayan landscapes. The present edition commemorates the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its author's birth.

Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (b. May 31, 1863 in British India, d. July 31, 1942 in Dorset, England) was among the great British figures to explore the Karakorams and the Himalayas. In recognition of his achievement, the Royal Geographic Society awarded him its gold medal. He was the youngest member to be inducted into that organization and later in his life would go on to serve as its president. A career officer, Younghusband set off on Central Asian and Himalayan expeditions soon after joining the Queens Dragon's Guard in the regiment at Rawalpindi, now part of Pakistan. This was during the era of the Great Game, when the discovery of Himalayan routes and passes were of vital importance to England and Russia's imperial ambitions of England. In the wake of his first mountain exploits, he carried out various missions for the Political Service in India and led the British invasion of Tibet, which resulted in the occupation Llasa and the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty of 1904 and in turn the flight of the XIII Dalai Lama to Mongolia. Explorer, officer, spy, geographer, journalist, mountain climber, author, professor, Younghusband was an extraordinary character who in the last years of his life promoted the World Congress of Faith, which he founded in 1936.