Peter Matthiessen's search for solace in Dolpo
The Snow Leopard is Peter Matthiessen's 1978 account of his two-month search for the snow leopard with naturalist George Schaller in Dolpo. What can a traveler's search and spiritual exploration reveal about seeking solace while grieving? The lessons consider how an outward expedition can also become an inward search.
2 articles, 1 book · about 18 min of reading and viewing
The reading path
- ReadPeter Matthiessen's search for the snow leopard in Dolpo and the Zen of a grieving traveler in The Snow Leopard · Wikipedia · 3 min read
In The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen recounts his 1973 journey with George Schaller to Shey Gompa in Nepal's inner Dolpo region, including their search for the seldom-seen snow leopard and Matthiessen's spiritual exploration. Matthiessen also remembers his wife Deborah Love, who had died of cancer before the journey, making the book a meditation on death, loss, memory and healing.
- ReadThe Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen — Book Review + Discussion · graceful.substack.com · 15 min read
Peter Matthiessen made the 250-mile trek to Dolpo in 1973 as part of an expedition to study wild blue sheep. It was also a 'journey of the heart': among the beauty and indifference of the mountains, he was searching for solace.
- BookThe Snow Leopard · Bookshop.org
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen describes his five-week trek to study Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard as winter snows swept into the high passes. The catalogue calls the account a "true pilgrimage, a journey of the heart."
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