He knows they are rare and endangered and that somehow the villagers and the snow leopard are going to have to learn to live together in their shared habitat. It is a book that celebrates the spark of life that propels us towards transcending our heavy human existence in pursuit of something. It is the perfect book for teaching children to read while learning about the exciting world of snow leopards.

What I am coming round to saying is that part of the charm of the book are the vulnerabilities of the author a man who abandoned a fairly young son to go half way round the world to keep another man company while he tries to watch goat-sheep having sex - which they are not keen to do. Behind and below, among swirls made by snow gleam and the ice-broken black brook, a surreal figure very like my own pursues me across the vast floor of the mountains. It is quite beautiful as such and if I can take away the glint of perfection he describes in those moments of just taking in what is there as it is when it is. The question of whether he will ever see a snow leopard comes to matter less and less as he uses his Buddhist training to remind himself of tenets of acceptance (“not fatalism but a deep trust in life”) and transience: “In worrying about the future, I despoil the present”; what is this “forever getting-ready-for-life instead of living it each day”? Matthiessen frequently digresses to remember his wife Deborah Love who had died of cancer prior to the adventure.A lark, a swift, a lammergeier, and more griffons: the vultures pass at eye level, on creaking wings. For a book that was supposed to be a travelogue into the world of the snow leopard, there were endless pages of dense reflections on Buddhism. The tale is based on a true story that happened to Rigzin Tundup who worked for the Snow Leopard Conservancy India and saved a snow leopard from being killed in 2007. For me, most of the treasures in this book came from the center section, where human interactions had not yet disappeared entirely and we learn the lifestyles of people who are truly off the grid, several days' hike from the closest road, self sufficient and, for the most part, apparently at ease in their relations to the world around them. And update 2022: they are still there, and the species is still not extinct in the world, if not thriving.

She initiated and led the development of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) records-training programs for use of Species360 software and was Co-Administrator of the Institutional Records-Keeping Course for 19 years.The illustrations are by the award-winning Ivan Gantschev and they are softly done in cool watercolors. A two month climb under hard conditions in which he takes the time to mingle with the natives, connect with a Buddhist spirituality and smell the roses, in this case, Everest’s fauna and animals. It was the first time for me to read a book by Peter Matthiessen and I'm afraid I didn't like it too much. Other sections describe established and emerging threats, including human-wildlife conflict, illegal trade, infrastructure development, and climate change along with conservation solutions used to address these threats. He has been nominated for the 2010 Indianapolis Prize, the most prestigious endangered species conservation prize in the world.

In its wholehearted acceptance of what is, this is just what Soen Roshi might have said: “I feel as if he had struck me in the chest. But yes, so many good things happened, including a deepening commitment to environmental awareness and activism, for all of us. In fact, their journey started in hot, humid, mosquito-infected humanity of Nepal between the Hindi of India and southern China, areas of great historical conflict. Matthiessen is seeking an encounter with the more secret snow leopard, a not-so-vieled metaphor to the real substance of the journey, which is a quest for enlightenment. But to see one is the lifelong goal (much as enlightenment is to his on-again off-again friend Matthiessen) of the author's travelling companion.

Not only is the story intriguing for kids but it also has a lovely environmental message about the future of the mountains. Brilliant, vivid account of Matthiessen's journey with a biologist and a team of porters and sherpas through the quiet, snow-covered and strange Himalayas. They also say that there is a police check post at Saldang, which makes it inadvisable for us to go there” (p. Matthiessen watches foxes hunting and griffons soaring overhead; he marvels at alpine birds and flora.

toto je moja pripomienka, že svet je omnoho väčší a rozmanitý, že existuje viac ako len ten náš známy západ, že rozdielnosť názorov, hodnôt, tradícii a vonkoncom rozdielnosť prostého prežívania je krásna a je v poriadku. It is almost as if we have our backpack along with him and biologist, George Schaller, as they climb in the remote Dolpo region of the Tibetan Plateau to observe the blue sheep and solve the evolutionary mystery of their origins.

To Flower Children, become middle aged in their inevitable daily grind, he gave new hope in this book.