Blue sky kingdom An epic family journey to the heart of the Himalayas
Book - 2020
"A warm and unforgettable portrait of a family letting go of the known world to encounter an unfamiliar one filled with rich possibilities and new understandings. Bruce Kirkby had fallen into a pattern of looking mindlessly at his phone for hours, flipping between emails and social media, ignoring his children and wife and everything alive in his world, when a thought struck him. This wasn't living; this wasn't him. This moment of clarity started a chain reaction which ended with a grand plan: he was going to take his wife and two young sons, jump on a freighter and head for the Himalaya. In Blue Sky Kingdom, we follow Bruce and his family's remarkable three months journey, where they would end up living amongst the Lama...s of Zanskar Valley, a forgotten appendage of the ancient Tibetan empire, and one of the last places on earth where Himalayan Buddhism is still practiced freely in its original setting. Richly evocative, Blue Sky Kingdom explores the themes of modern distraction and the loss of ancient wisdom coupled with Bruce coming to terms with his elder son's diagnosis on the Autism Spectrum. Despite the natural wonders all around them at times, Bruce's experience will strike a chord with any parent--from rushing to catch a train with the whole family to the wonderment and beauty that comes with experience the world anew with your children" --Amazon.
- Subjects
- Genres
- Travel writing
Autobiographies
Biographies - Published
-
New York :
Pegasus Books
2020.
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Edition
- First Pegasus Books edition
- Physical Description
- xxi, 295 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), maps ; 24 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-295).
- ISBN
- 9781643135687
- Maps
- Prologue
- I. Shallows
- 1. Untethering
- 2. The Little Professor
- 3. An Army of Trojan Horses
- 2. Among the Ancients
- 4. Across the Divide
- 5. Once in a Full Moon
- 6. Touching Down
- 7. Everything Old Is New Again
- 8. Same as It Ever Was
- 9. Lost Horizons
- 3. In the Sky, There is No Distinction of Bast and West
- 10. Seat of the Kings
- 11. The Economy of Merit
- 12. They Were the Lucky Ones
- 13. Alone
- 14. The Great Sins
- 4. Nothing Lasts Forever but the Earth and Sky
- 15. The Gods Within
- 16. Life Is the Ceremony
- 17. Nature's Smudged Lines
- 18. Sky Fishing
- 19. The Shattering
- 5. Impermanence
- 20. Through the Barricades
- 21. Going, Going ...
- 22. Gone
- Notes on Language and Spelling
- Jullays
- Selected Bibliography
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review