Bergamo, 1995, 1st edition. 200 pp, 100+ color photos. In English and Italian. Kurt Diemberger's family, his daughter Hildegard and his former wife Maria, have translated an ancient Tibetan text found in a Tibetan Monastery, and uses excerpts from that text to tie together ancient tales and myths of firece and benevolent mountain deities, and the modern life and recent history of the holy places at the base of the Himalaya giants. Kurt Diemberger has contibuted many color photos. The book is a large format hardcover with a dust jacket, and comes in a handsome slipcase. Condition of the book, dust jacket and slipcase are Fine.

 

 

La storia del Cristallo Bianco : tratto dal manoscritto di Ngawang Kalden Gyatsho monaco tibetano vissuto nel 1700 = The story of the White Crystal : based on the manuscript of Ngawang Kalden Gyatsho, a Tibetan monk who lived in the eighteenth century / Maria Antonia Sironi, Hildegard Diemberger, Pasang Wangdu ; photos: Carlo Meazza, Kurt Diemberger

 

Maria Antonia Sironi is a geologist, writer, and translator. In her youth she took part in many mountaineering expeditions to different parts of the world. Having ventured out to the Hindu Kush on the border of the mythic Oddyiana Land, she is most deeply bound to the mountains of Tibet. For many years she lived with the local population. Sironi is co-founder and president of Eco Himal ONLUS, a small NGO dedicated to safeguarding Tibetan culture and landscape. Sironi has published several books about Tibet, its mountains and its people. Among them are The Story of the White Crystal, finalist at Banff Mountain Festival 1996), and Tibet, l'Altra Metà del Cielo, (winner of the Mazzotti Gambrinus Prize 2003). Kurt Diemberger is one of the world's great climbers, making first ascents of Broad Peak and Dhaulagiri, and climbed 4 other 8000 m peaks including Everest and K2.