Alexandra David-Neel

 
 

My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City by Alexandra David-Neel Paperback from Harper Perennial Media Published: 2005-08-23 ISBN: 0060596554 An exemplary travelogue of danger and achievement by the Frenchwoman Madame Alexandra David-Neel of her 1923 expedition to Tibet, the fifth in her series of Asian travels, and her personal recounting of her journey to Lhasa, Tibet's forbidden city. In order to penetrate Tibet and reach Lhasa, she used her fluency of Tibetan dialects and culture, disguised herself as a beggar with yak hair extensions and inked skin and tackled some of the roughest terrain and climate in the World. With the help of her young companion, Yongden, she willingly suffered the primitive travel conditions, frequent outbreaks of disease, the ever-present danger of border control and the military to reach her goal. The determination and sheer physical fortitude it took for this woman, delicately reared in Paris and Brussels, is inspiration for men and women alike. David-Neel is famous for being the first Western woman to have been received by any Dalai Lama and as a passionate scholar and explorer of Asia, hers is one of the most remarkable of all travellersß´ales. In any time, Alexandra David-Neel would have been considered an extraordinary woman, but in the Victorian era, she was truly exceptional. Born in 1868, David-Neel eschewed the dances, dinners, and formal marriages common to women of her era and social standing in order to indulge her fierce independence and insatiable intellectual curiosity. Her interest in comparative religions dated back to early childhood; even as a student in a Catholic convent school, she kept statues of both Christ and the Buddha in her room. She made her first trip to Asia in 1891, then supported herself as a light-opera singer and journalist before marrying a seemingly conventional man, Philip Neel. Fortunately for both Alexandra David-Neel and for posterity, Philip was less stodgy than his position as a well-off engineer might imply; though he did not accompany her, he supported his wife's explorations and even acted as her literary agent when she began to write about the places she visited. Alexandra and Philip remained the closest of friends until his death in 1941. David-Neel spent years traveling in India and China, but perhaps her most daring adventure was the trip to Tibet's forbidden city of Lhasa. She was 55 years old at the time, fluent in Tibetan and well versed in both Sanskrit and Buddhism. Disguised as a man, she spent four treacherous months on the road before finally becoming the first European woman ever to enter Lhasa. My Journey to Lhasa is David-Neel's own account of her astounding journey, one fraught with hardship and danger. It is both a chronicle of a bygone time and a testimonial to a remarkable human.

The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects by Alexandra David-Neel, Michael Lally Paperback from City Lights Publishers ISBN: 0872860124 This is an account of the Madhyamika (Middle Way) school of Buddhism, a method of mediation and enlightenment that was developed by the great Indian teacher Nagarjuna. In a collaboration between the Frenchwoman Alexandra David-Neel and her friend, the Tibetan lama Aphur Yongden, these teaching are presented clearly and elegantly, intended for the layman who seeks a way to practice and experience the realization of oneness with all existence. Alexandra David-Neel was born in 1868 in Paris. In her youth she wrote an incendiary anarchist treatise and was an acclaimed opera singer; then she decided to devote her life to exploration and the study of world religions, including Buddhist philosophy. She traveled extensively to in Central Asia and the Far East, where she learned a number of Asian languages, including Tibetan. In 1914, she met Lama Yongden, who became her adopted son, teacher, and companion. In 1923, at the age of fifty-five, she disguised herself as a pilgrim and journeyed to Tibet, where she was the first European woman to enter Lhasa, which was closed to foreigners at the time. In her late seventies, she settled in the south of France, where she lived until her death at 101 in 1969.

Magic and Mystery in Tibet by Alexandra David-Neel Paperback from Book Tree ISBN: 1585090972 David-Neel illustrates the point that there is much more to life than is found on the surface. Readers are initiated into powerful meditations, breathing exercises, the control of body heat, visions, shamanic magic and past life recollection.

The Secret Lives of Alexandra David-Neel: A Biography of the Explorer of Tibet and Its Forbidden Practices by Barbara Foster, Michael Foster Paperback from Overlook TP ISBN: 1585673293 The Secret Lives of Alexandra David-Neel is the definitive biography of the explorer Lawrence Durrell called "the most astonishing woman of our time." Alexandra David-Neel was the first European to explore Tibet at a time when foreigners were banned; few have led a life of adventure to equal hers or made so much of it. In Tibet and Sikkim, David-Neel lived among hermits and shamans while studying first hand the secret mystical practices of Tibetan Buddhism, including out-of-body travel, telepathy, vampiric shamanism, and tantric sex. After returning to France, she wrote more than thirty books, among them My Journey to Lhasa and Magic and Mystery in Tibet. She has had a profound influence on Beat culture and the emergence of American Buddhism. Drawing from rare source material, including information obtained from the secret files of the India office, Barbara and Michael Foster have written a vividly detailed chronicle-of both David-Neel's quest to conquer her personal demons and of the outer journey that made her one of the most celebrated figures of her day.

Alexandra David-Neel: Portait of an Adventurer by Ruth Middleton Paperback from Shambhala Media Published: 1989-07-01 ISBN: 0877734135 This unique biography explores the inner journey of a woman whose outer life was a thrilling story of passion and adventure. Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969), born in Paris to a socially prominent family, once boasted, "I learned to run before I could walk!" In the course of a lifetime of more than one hundred years, she was an acclaimed operatic soprano, a political anarchist, a religious reformer, an intrepid explorer who traveled in Tibet for fourteen years, a scholar of Buddhism, and the author of more than forty books. But perhaps the most intriguing of all her adventures was the spiritual search that led her from a youthful interest in socialism and Freemasonry to the teachings of the great sages of India and culminated in her initiation into the secret tantric practices of Tibetan Buddhism. This book reveals the penetrating insight and courage of a woman who surmounted physical, intellectual, and social barriers to pursue her spiritual quest.

Immortality and Reincarnation: Wisdom from the Forbidden Journey by Alexandra David-Neel Paperback from Inner Traditions Media Published: 1997-03-01 ISBN: 0892816198 Famed traveler and mystic Alexandra David-Neel, the first Western woman to see the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet, examines Eastern concepts of the afterlife in this classic study. The question of what occurs to the individual personality after death is fundamental to the human experience. In Immortality and Reincarnation Alexandra David-Neel, the first Western woman to see the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet, examines Taoist, Tibetan, and Hindu concepts concerning life after death. Contrary to Western belief, which sees the human being as composed of a mortal body and an immortal soul, many Easterners believe in the immortality of both the body and the soul. Alexandra David-Neel gained firsthand knowledge of these beliefs and the practices they engendered in the course of her travels at the beginning of this century. In Immortality and Reincarnation she ties them together for a unique look at reincarnation and eternal life in a region untouched by the modern world.

Initiations And Initiates In Tibet by Alexandra David-Neel Paperback from Kessinger Publishing, LLC ISBN: 142548347X This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

POWER OF NOTHINGNESS by Alexandra David-Neel, Lama Yongden Hardcover from Houghton Mifflin ISBN: 0395315573 This extraordinary book is the result of a collaboration between a mos remarkable Frenchwoman who, early in this century, became the first European to penetrate the Tibetan Mysteries , and the young Lama Yongden who became her adopted son, teacher-companion, and disciple and who is the primary author of this tale. Janwillem van de Wetering, well known both for his two very moving accounts of his own Buddhist training and for a sparkling series of detective novels, has provided a considerably fresh translation from the French. The story is about a lama's servant, a man of no intellectual pretensions, who finds his teacher murdered in his tent and presumably robbed of the precious jewel he wore around his neck. The loyal servant pursues the unknown murderer across Tibet and eventually to China. As Janwillem says in his introduction, this novel has all the elements (and more) of a classic thriller: "a murder, a criminal, a private eye...a hermit in a cave, a turquoise the size of an egg...Taoism...wolves, a good chase... a luscious widow...a Zen master..." and in the end, Enlightenment. But more than that it has a highly exotic background, a cast of very striking characters, and an atmosphere that will haunt the reader long after the tale is finished. it would be pretentious to say that this book "explain" Tibet, but it allows an outsider to have a sense of experiencing that land and its people on many levels, and thereby it becomes a spiritual adventure as much as a physical one.

Far Beyond the Garden Gate: Alexandra David-Neel's Journey to Lhasa by Don Brown Hardcover from Houghton Mifflin Books for Children ISBN: 0618083642 In her time, Alexandra David-Neel was the most famous woman in France. She had traveled extensively in China and Tibet and, in 1924, was the first Western woman ever to enter Tibet's forbidden capital, Lhasa. Alexandra was a self-taught Buddhist scholar and spoke Tibetan flawlessly. And she did it all as a mature woman she was in her mid-fifties when she arrived in Lhasa. Not only is Alexandra David-Neel's story one of high adventure, of trekking through snow-choked mountain passes and wild encounters on the Tibetan tablelands, but it is also about a prolific writer and passionate advocate of Tibetan culture. Far Beyond the Garden Gate reveals an unforgettable life's journey with vibrant, graceful prose and stunning illustrations.

My Journey to Lhasa
by Alexandra David-Neel
Paperback from Beacon Press
1993

The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects
by Alexandra David-Neel, Yongden
Paperback from City Lights Books
1981

The Secret Lives of Alexandra David-Neel: A Biography of the Explorer of Tibet and Its Forbidden Practices
by Barbara Foster, Michael Foster
Paperback from Overlook Press

The Secret Lives of Alexandra David-Neel: A Biography of the Explorer of Tibet and Its Forbidden Practices
by Barbara Foster, Michael Foster, Lawrence Durrell
A biography of the first western woman to visit Lhasa, Frenchwoman Alexandra David-Neal (1868 -1969).
Book Description: The Secret Lives of Alexandra David-Neel is the definitive biography of the explorer Lawrence Durrell called "the most astonishing woman of our time." Alexandra David-Neel was the first European to explore Tibet at a time when foreigners were banned; few have led a life of adventure to equal hers or made so much of it. 
In Tibet and Sikkim, David-Neel lived among hermits and shamans while studying first hand the secret mystical practices of Tibetan Buddhism, including out-of-body travel, telepathy, vampiric shamanism, and tantric sex. After returning to France, she wrote more than thirty books, among them My Journey to Lhasa and Magic and Mystery in Tibet. She has had a profound influence on Beat culture and the emergence of American Buddhism. 
Drawing from rare source material, including information obtained from the secret files of the India office, Barbara and Michael Foster have written a vividly detailed chronicle-of both David-Neel's quest to conquer her personal demons and of the outer journey that made her one of the most celebrated figures of her day.
Hardcover - 304 pages
Overlook Press; ISBN: 0879517743

The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling
by Alexandra David-Neel, Violet Sydney
Paperback from Shambhala
1981

Magic and Mystery in Tibet
by Madame Alexandra David-Neel
Paperback from Dover Pubns
1971

Far Beyond the Garden Gate: Alexandra David-Neel's Journey to Lhasa
by Don Brown
Library Binding from Houghton Mifflin Co

Immortality & Reincarnation
by Alexandra David-Neel, Jon Graham (Translator)
Paperback - 133 pages
Inner Traditions Intl Ltd; ISBN: 0892816198

Initiations and Initiates in Tibet
by Alexandra David-Neel, Fred Rothwell (Translator)
Paperback reprint edition (June 1993)
Dover Pubns; ISBN: 0486275795

My Journey to Lhasa: The Personal Story of the Only White Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City (1927)
by Alexandra David-Neel
The memoirs of a stout 55-year-old Frenchwoman who trekked in disguise for four months to become the first Western woman to reach Lhasa.
Paperback from Kessinger Publishing Company

The Power of Nothingness
by Alexandra David-Neel, Albert Arthur Yongden
Hardcover from Houghton Mifflin Co
1982
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Le lumineux destin d'Alexandra David-Néel
by Jean Chalon
Unknown Binding from Perrin

Tibet: Journey to the Forbidden City: Retracing the Steps of Alexandra David-Neel
by Tiziana Baldizzone, Gianni Baldizzone, Ann Hylands Ghiringhelli, Valeria Manferto, Gianni Baldizonne
Hardcover from Stewart, Tabori & Chang

Alexandra David-Neel
by Middleton
Paperback from Shambhala

Women Explorers in Asia: Susie Carson Rijnhart, Alexandra David-Neel, Lucy Atkinson, Freya Stark, Dervla Murphy (Capstone Short Biographies)
by Margo McLoone, Margo McLoone-Basta
School & Library Binding from Capstone Press

Alexandra David-Neel: Portrait of an Adventurer
by Ruth Middleton, Emily Hilburn Sell
Paperback from Shambhala
1989

Tibetan Journey
by Alexandra David-Neel
Hardcover from South Asia Books
1992

Re-enchantment: Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West
by Jeffery Paine, Jeffrey Paine
Hardcover from W.W. Norton & Company

Buddhism : its doctrines and its methods
by Alexandra David-Neel
Unknown Binding from Bodley Head

Forbidden Journey: The Life of Alexandra David-Neel
by Michael Foster, Barbara M. Foster
Hardcover from HarperCollins
1987

Immortalité et réincarnation : doctrines et pratiques, Chine, Tibet, Inde
by Alexandra David-Neel
Editions du Rocher
Out of Print - Try Used Books
 
 
 

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