On 4 July 1900 , a young Japanese monk named Kawaguchi Ekai crossed the border from Nepal to Tibet. Already the first of his race to enter the isolated, mysterious country, he went on to become the first Japanese to reach the forbidden city of Lhasa.
Though he had mastered the Tibetan language and was able to travel in disguise, the unlikely and highly idiosyncratic explorer was otherwise woefully ill-equipped, yet somehow he overcame robbery, starvation, freezing conditions, illness and an appalling sense of direction. By the end of his remarkable journey he had gained a reputation as a doctor, studied at the ancient university of Sera and met the Dalai Lama himself, while keeping his identity secret for over a year.

Born in the USA in 1945, Scott Berry left the land of his birth in 1967 and has travelled widely spending two years in Ethiopia, a year in Morocco, five in Nepal, six in Japan, eight in England, and ten in Turkey. The research for this unusual and entertaining biography of an extraordinary traveller took him to most of the places visited by Kawaguchi. He and his wife now divide their time between Nepal, Malaysia and Japan.

	Contents: A Stranger in Nepal & Tibet: The Adventures of a Wandering Zen Monk
	Preface to the 2008 Edition	vii
	Acknowledgments	viii
	The Inspiration	1
	Darjeeling	13
	Of Demons and Mystics	27
	Kathmandu	44
	The Lands Between	60
	The Road North	70
	Snow for My Bed and Rock for My Pillow	88
	Confrontation with Tibet	108
	Across Western Tibet	120
	The Treasures of Tsang	141
	The Doctor of Sera	156
	Notoriety and Discovery	177
	Excape	195
	Back to Nepal	210
	Interlude in Japan	225
	The Quiet Years	237
	Sentimental Journey	250
	The Twilight Years	267
	Appendix: Three Year in Tibet	273
	Selected Bibliography	284
	Index	287