Author(s): Ian Baker

Travel Writing

A pilgrimage, as much as an exploration, this is a brilliant, magically written account of a journey that is physical and spiritual. This is already a cult book with many potential mass markets - MBS, literary, religious, travel writing at its finest. Ian Baker's original discovery of the waterfall made international headlines, acclaimed as the greatest feat of exploration in recent memory. It has wide review coverage, high profile serialisation, endorsements from the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere. It includes author tour, events with Buddhist groups. "The Heart of the World" is the story of the most captivating story of exploration of recent memory, an extraordinary journey into one of the most inaccessible places on earth, a mediation on our place in nature and a pilgrimage into the Tibetan Buddhist faith. Ian Baker travels into the Tsangpo gorge, the world's deepest and impenetrable chasm, searching for a mythical waterfall that ancient Tibetan tradition believes to the gateway to a mystical paradise, Shangri-La. The heart of the Tsangpo gorge was fully explored only recently by Ian Baker, after years of interviewing lamas, deciphering obscure Buddhist texts and making pilgrimages to the gorge. He descended into the gorge and made international news by finding a 108-foot-high waterfall.