Tibetan Foothold - Softcover

The moving tale of Dervla Murphy’s experiences working in the Tibetan refugee camps of Northern India in the sixties.

In July 1963 Dervla Murphy, one of our best-loved travel writers, arrives in a sweltering Delhi by bicycle. Deciding that the heat precludes further cycling, she sets about finding some useful way of filling in her time until the cool of November arrives. So begins a unique and unforgettable experience in the Tibetan refugee camps of Northern India.

Using extracts from the diaries she kept at the time, Dervla vividly describes the day-to-day life in the camps where hundreds of children are living in squalor while a handful of dedicated volunteers do their best to feed and care for them, attempting to keep disease at bay with limited resources. Quickly falling in love with the ‘Tiblets’ – cheerful, uncomplaining, independent and affectionate children – she pitches in with a helping hand wherever it is needed (just about everywhere), and even finds time to meet the Dalai Lama and his entourage.

Several months later she is on the road again, first to Simla, hitch-hiking on to Delhi and then back to Dharamsala for final farewells. During her travels she bicycles up the Kulu Valley – The Valley of the Gods – to find out what life is like for the adult Tibetans working on road construction and living in camps on the sites.

Dervla’s first-hand account of the problems she encounters is enlivened by her trademark dry wit and candid humour and she gives us her own views on the particular cultural and social problems associated with trying to help a people who have been living in isolation, out of step with the rest of the world, for several centuries.

July 1963, and Dervla Murphy, one of our best-loved travel writers, arrives in a sweltering Delhi by bicycle. Deciding that the heat precludes further cycling, she sets out about finding some useful way of filling her time until the cool of November arrives. So begins a unique and unforgettable experience working in the Tibetan refugee camps of Northern India.

Dervla vividly describes the day-to-day life in the camps where a handful of dedicated volunteers do their best to feel and care for them, attempting to keep disease at bay with severely limited resources. Quickly falling in love with the "Tiblets" – cheerful, she pitches in with a helping hand wherever it is needed (just about everywhere), and also finds time to visit the Dalai Lama and his entourage.

Dervla's heart-rending account is interwoven with her own observations on the particular cultural and social problems associated with trying to help a people who had always lived in isolation from the rest of the world, and a new perspective is afforded by her present-day reflections.

"This is a moving – at times even harrowing – story. But it is leavened by the writer's irrepressible zest for life, her warm humanity, her courage and good humour."
IRISH INDEPENDENT

"Dervla Murphy's eye for the unusual and her capacity of recreating the people she meets by the way remains as acute as ever."
DAILY TELEGRAPH