3 Review(s)

A gripping tale of adventure, this tells the story of Dr Ossendowski’s escape from the Bolsheviks in Russia to yet more troubles as he tries to pass through Tibet to India and the safety of the British Empire. But the Tibetan bandits were not about to let him cross their land, and it was only cunning and subterfuge that saved him from certain death at their hands. Forced to return to Mangolia, even then more travails awaited him, and his story continues through this wild country, where he had interminable adventures with the Tushegoun Lama and the Baron Ungern. A fortuneteller told him his life would be saved, but on nearly every page he is in danger of losing it. It is great relief when he finally gets on the train of ‘unbelievable luxry’ to Peking, where he is ‘surrounded by the comforts and conveniences of a splendid hotel.’ Not just a travelogue, this also gives an insight into the complicated state of Buddhism in Mangolia. Bad men are wiped off the slate with the stroke of hand or the utterance of a word; hung from shop frontages after stealing a bottle of alcohol, for example. Justice in those places was though in those days. Read on, for exciting tales of man’s struggle against the forces of nature, and worse still, man’s struggle against man.