David Mason Fine and Rare Books

LANDOR, A. Henry Savage.
In the Forbidden Land. An Account of a Journey into Tibet Capture by the Tibetan  Lamas and Soldiers, Imprisonment. Torture and Ultimate Release brought about by  Dr. Wilson and the Political Peshkar Karak Sing-Pal.

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1899. In two volumes. First U.S. edition. Tall  8vo., orig. green cloth with pictorial decoration on the upper boards, t.e.g.,  (xviii), (307), (308 blank); (xiv), 250pp. With 8 plates in colour, 50 full page  plates, numerous illustrations in the text, and a folding map in the rear of  volume two. Name on the endpaper otherwise a bright, bright copy. Yakushi L59a.

A. Henry Savage Landor [1865-1924] British explorer who is perhaps best  remembered for being captured while travelling in Tibet at time when it was  officially closed to foreigners. He set off for Tibet for ‘geographic and  scientific purposes, and to study the manners and customs of those people.'  While attempting to reach the forbidden city of Llhasa, he was abandoned by his  servants, and set upon by 400 Tibetan soldiers. Landor and his servants were  imprisoned and tortured, and his release was only secured after the intervention  of a British official and missionary. Landor's account, for obvious reasons,  does not paint a positive picture of the Tibetans.