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So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas | 
 enlarge | Author: Barbara Crossette
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $5.35
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 379841
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0679743634
Dewey Decimal Number: 294.3095496
EAN: 9780679743637
ASIN: 0679743634
Publication Date: June 25, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Good; wear and feathering to cover - underlines and margin notes - smooth spine - sturdy book
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Product Description
For more than a thousand years Tibet, Sikkim, Ladakh, and Bhutan were the santuaries of Tantric Buddhism. But in the last half of this century, geopolitics has scoured the landscape of the Himalayas, and only the reclusive kingdom of Bhutan remains true to Tantric Buddhism. As she travels through Bhutan and its neighbots, Crossette introduces readers to a world that has emerged from the middle ages only to find itself peering into the abyss of modernity.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 One side of the coin December 17, 1999
Hari (acharyahari@hotmail.com) (Stockton, California, USA)
27 out of 37 found this review helpful
Writers who paint one side of the coin are a bane to the world. Governments records and things as they seem do not make a truth. No body, I repeat, nobody can write the true story about Bhutan if he/she has not been a Bhutanese for entire life. Crossette does not know and will never know the atrocities perpretated by the compassionate "Buddhist King" of Bhutan. She will never know how my fatehr was hung upside down and beaten for not being obedient to the compassionate King. She will never know the fear psychosis of the Bhutanese regime that is strangling itself. Bhutan, the land is beautiful and exotic otherwise I would not be wasting my time telling you it is. The captivating landscape and the mystic religion is a blanket under which tortures and rapes went on, whoile some journalists and historians lost themselves in the myth of the oxymoron, "democratic monarchy". The other side would have blamed Barbara if she had been objective and sensitive to the facts. I blame her because I do not beleive that a minority trhat is seized by fear losing power will be justified to kill. Anyway, Kudos to barbara for the effort. The next book on Bhutan will be written by an author who will have the freedom to see Bhutan freely.
 A highly readable introduction to Bhutan February 8, 2000
saskatoonguy (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
The title indicates the book is about Himalayan Buddhism. While small portions are devoted to the Buddhists of Kashmir, Nepal, and Sikkim, the majority of the book is about Bhutan, because it's the last remaining Buddhist monarchy of the Himalayan region. This is not a travel narrative; instead, the material is arranged by topic. It's comprehensive and pleasant to read. It's shortcoming is the author's unabashed bias in favor of the Bhutanese monarchy, despite its dubious record of human rights toward the Hindu minority. Crossette admits she received favored treatment from the king, and it shows. Likewise, she sides with the (now deposed) monarchy of Sikkim. The bias is so transparently obvious, I didn't feel I had been conned, but one expects greater balance from a correspondent of The New York Times.
 Not close enough March 12, 2007
ShriDurga (Japan)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
Subtitled "The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas," So Close to Heaven doesn't quite live up to its billing. About three quarters of the book focuses on the tiny kingdom of Bhutan, with perfunctory chapters on Sikkim, Ladakh and Nepal, and nothing at all on Tibet, the region's former center of scholarship and religious authority. Nor is there more than passing reference to Dharmasala, seat of the Tibetan exile government headed by the Dalai Lama.
Even so this is a readable introduction to the people and history of the Buddhist cultures of the Himalayas. A first-person account of her travels through the region organized topically, former New York Times correspondent Barbara Crosette never ventures into the territory of modern travel writers to describe how the journey changes the writer. She writes instead as she would for her newspaper, with great attention to the facts of history and details of her surroundings, allowing the reader to feel immersed in this often exotic corner of the world, one that has over the last half century been slowly disappearing as development encroaches on traditional culture and as powerful neighbors usurp political independence. Unfortunately, for a reporter from such a prestigious news organization she makes little effort to investigate claims of human rights abuses against the Bhutanese monarchy, with which she admits having cordial and cozy relations.
First published in 1995, this volume remains in 2007 an interesting introduction the region, a place slow to change and still experiencing many of the pressures and conflicts Crosette recorded a decade ago.
a clear and thoughtful look at the Himalayan kingdoms June 19, 1999
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
So Close to Heaven is a clear and thoughtful look at Bhutan and other (now vanished) Himalayan kingdoms. Crossette is an excellent traveling companion, blending research, analysis and personal observation in a very readable and informative text.
Pushing her political agenda August 24, 1998
9 out of 19 found this review helpful
Barbara is pushing her political agenda in this book which detracts from its value.
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