By Aurosmita Acharya
Shortlisted for Adventure Travel Book of the Year for 2018 Edward Stanford Awards, Land of Dawn-lit Mountains is a thrilling adventure book trailing through the mesmerizing state of Arunachal Pradesh, one of the ‘Biodiversity Hotspots’ of the world.
Author Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent is a record-breaking adventurer, travel writer, public speaker and TV producer. She has worked in and travelled over 50 countries.
Her previous books, Tuk-Tuk to the Road and A Short Ride in the Jungle were well received.
Graduating from the Edinburgh University with Masters in Modern History, she travelled the Gobi Desert on a tuk-tuk and won the Cosmopolitan Magazine’s Fun Fearless Female Award.
She currently works as a BBC producer.
Antonia in her book explores the mountainous state clinging to the far north-eastern corner of India, Arunachal Pradesh that has remained uniquely isolated. Steeped in myth and mystery, she travels the state encountering the shamans, lamas, hunters, opium farmers, fantastic tribal festivals and little-known stories from the Second World War.
In the process, she discovers a world and a way of living that are on the cusp of changing forever.
Surprisingly unscathed, it is a land of captivating scenery, majestic Himalayan backdrop, abundant greenery, soaring waterfalls and pictorial lakes.
Antonia’s narrative rightly justifies the lines: “in this hidden land, all mountains are like blooming flowers. All rivers spontaneously recite mantras and flow with nectar; rainbows are arched on trees and bushes. Pure Samadhi will spontaneously arise just by being in this land,” as said by Guru Rimpoche, Tibetan spiritual guru.
This breath-taking slice of heaven offers much more. It is only appropriate that we embark on an enthralling journey through these undomesticated lands to get a true measure of probably the last Shangri- La on earth, neatly packaged in Antonia’s timeless offering.
The book has been published by Simon & Schuster, UK.
Aurosmita Acharya is a New Delhi based journalist writing on cultural affairs.
