Includes bibliographical references (page 160).

"Born in Paris in 1868, Alexandra David-Neel spent some thirteen years traveling though China and Tibet, walking unknown routes, discovering and photographing new cultures and people, and exploring their traditions and religious beliefs. "The land of the gentleman brigands" was the name she gave to an area in the far west of China, populated by fierce and dangerous tribes, through which she traveled several times in her attempts to reach Lhasa, the Forbidden City of Tibet." "Today, Alexandra David-Neel's photographs and the written accounts of her expeditions remain as testimony to her courage. But as she wrote at the time, she regretted that her pictures "would not convey the true colors of this wonderful land." Some 70 years later, photographers Tiziana and Gianni Baldizzone traveled to Tibet to discover for themselves this fascinating land, to visit the same tribes, and to photograph the people and the landscapes - to "give color" to the impressions of Alexandra David-Neel. With more than 145 stunning illustrations, their book is a celebration of color, showing in marvelous detail the panoramic landscapes, the faces and expressions of individual people, and the splendid decoration of the costumes, as elaborate today as in the 1920s. This photographic pilgrimage journeys through both time and space to a land rarely seen by Western eyes."--Jacket.