Magic and Mystery in Tibet: Alexandra David-Neel

Image of book cover from art.eonworks. Alexandra David-Neel in her travel attire below, image from Cornell Library

I had come across Alexandra David-Neel by chance. I had been searching for something related to travel on the internet and one page led to the other where I came upon her name. David-Neel was an intrepid woman traveler and the first and perhaps the only female foreigner to have audience with the Dalai Lama. Her journeys are concentrated in and around Tibet and Nepal and she has written a few books about it. The most famous of them all is “Magic and Mystery in Tibet,” hailed as a wonderful masterpiece. The moment I read all of these descriptions I couldn’t resist buying it.

Magic and Mystery in Tibet chronicles David-Neel’s journeys through the frosty plains and mountains of Tibet, her encounters with monks, lamas and holy men. Through them she learns and is privy to occult practices and rituals. She learns about their beliefs and she gets the privilege of being part of their practices.

Initially it’s a bit confusing because David-Neel begins the book in the middle. She has already described what brought her to Lhasa and how she got here in her previous book My Journey to Lhasa. Rationalism meets mysticism in David-Neel’s writing as she attempts to bring a scientific approach to many rituals of the monks. She also reveals a whole new world, that of the lives, the stories of and even the politics among these monks, which are usually shrouded in mystery to a commoner.

Her prose richly brings alive the fantastic and surreal landscape of Tibet, which by itself is a big part of the mysticism that surrounds these Buddhists. She describes people disappearing in a veil of mist in front of her eyes, of monks drying wet clothes on their backs in the biting cold of a Tibetan winter and of the power of telepathy. A touch of humor is present as she sardonically notes that the monks’ manner of keeping themselves warm during the winter is not so amazing considering that it involved much physical activity and vigorous movements.

One of the anecdotes she recounts is difficult for me to forget for some reason. She explains a ritual where a student monk has to prove his mettle by being tied to a tree the whole night. The catch is that he has to ward off the demons that are supposed to haunt that particular spot and if he remains alive then he has passed the test. One such student was found torn to pieces in the morning, which proved his weakness. But David-Neel provides a more rational explanation for it saying that the area is infested with panthers and hence the boy met his gory fate at their hands… or jaws rather.

Yet another story that remained with me long after I finished reading the book talks about how some ascetics are able to meditate to an extent to which their bodies become light. So light that they can sit upon a barley stalk without crushing it. Once she came across a man, dirty and ragged, lying on the ground. He was bound all over in chains. When she turned to her guide for an explanation, he said that it was because the man had become so light through intense meditation that he needed the weight of the chain to keep him grounded! David-Neel could only express pure incredulity at this.

Such is the vein in which the entire book is written – a mixture of rationalism, amazement and true wonderment at the lack of a sensible explanation behind some incidents.

Magic and Mystery in Tibet reminded me of An Autobiography of a Yogi but the latter was much less philosophical and easier to read. It had more direct speech making it more interesting while David-Neel delves into the various aspects of Buddhism in long prose making it a tad too deep at times. I admit I skipped some of those passages. OK many of those passages. Due to this at times it almost slipped my mind that I am reading a travelogue and not a thesis on Buddhism.

Nevertheless, the fantastic world of Tibet doesn’t cease to charm me. David-Neel’s observations of the magical world of the Buddhists did enthrall me in many parts especially with the descriptions of supernatural phenomena. Absolutely fascinating. And of course David-Neel is one of those fine women travelers that the world sees perhaps once in a century.

PS. David-Neel continued her travels till the very young age of 91. Here is a video of David-Neel from Dailymotion that is in French but provides some interesting images.

Verdict: Fascinating.

Rating: 3.8/5

Interesting words learnt: Sybaritic