The Ancients: Bhutan Diaries

Serena Chopra takes the reader into an extraordinary journey through the living landscape of this fascinating country — its powerful monasteries, kingdoms, mountains, rivers, rites, rituals and ceremonies. She shows how Bhutan, nestled between India and China, and which remained shrouded in mystery, has evolved into a distinctive culture with a political, economic, and a social fabric unique to this calm and peaceful nation. She has a rare gift of interpreting the simple and ordinary and translating it into a reality. The real value of the book comes not from the places and facts she describes but from her decision to base her journey as an inner quest giving it both a sense of history and glimpses into the future of Bhutan. She emerges as a delightful companion to the reader as it feels one is walking with her. She photographs with a vision that comes from a subtle understanding of the truth of the Bhutanese people. The book has high production values, is thoroughly readable and a feast to the eyes.