The Land of the Blue Poppy Travels of a Naturalist in Eastern Tibet

About this book

A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection.

In 1911, Francis Kingdon Ward (1885-1958) set off on his first solo expedition and collected hundreds of plant species, many previously unknown. From Burma, he headed into the Hengduan Mountains of north-western Yunnan province, exploring along the Mekong, Yangtze and Salween rivers in the region between eastern Tibet and western Sichuan. In 2003, this area was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the world's most biodiverse temperate zones, its extraordinary topography arises from its position at the collision point of tectonic plates.

This fascinating book, first published in 1913, was one of the most popular by a prolific author. It is generously illustrated with Kingdon Ward's own photographs and maps from the trip. The blue poppy of the title is Meconopsis speciosa, which Kingdon Ward described as the Cambridge blue poppy, rather than the famous Tibetan blue poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia) that he later brought to England.

Contents

1. The call of the red gods
2. On the plateau of Yunnan
3. On the Li-ti-p'ing
4. Up the Mkeong valley
5. A-tun-tsi
6. A journey to the Salween
7. Through the Lutzu country to Men-kong
8. Doker-la - the sacred mountain
9. On the road to Batang - the last town in China
10. Across the China-Tibet border
11. The wonderful Mekong
12. Mountain and monastery
13. Over the Run-tsi-la
14. A winter journey amongst the Lutzu
15. Through the land of the cross-bow
16. The revolutionist occupation of La-chi-mi
17. the last of the Mekong
18. Back to Burma
19. The land of deep corrosions

Appendices
Index

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