Ian A. BakerRecensioni

Jan Baker an intrepid explorer and mountaineer, inspired by Tibetan termas, chronicles his search to the door of Shangri-la in the Himalayas. He and his team sloughed through the rough terrain of Pemaka in Tibet into snake infested forests with gnats and mosquitos, blood sucking worms and leeches. Fog and rain were their constant companions. They also faced beaurocratic road blocks from hard headed Chinese officials and enigmatic responses from Buddhists lamas and abbots. His pilgrimage is well worth reading since his excursion may be one of the last to describe an until-now unknown refuge as China begins to modernize Tibet.

Some people write memoirs and it draws you into their lives. Some people write memoirs that are like reading check-off lists. This one is the latter.

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Baker-LArt-de-guerir-au-Tibet/298043

> Un très beau livre, en plus d'être d'une belle profondeur.
—Danieljean (Babelio)

> L'art de guérir au Tibet
Préfacé par le dalaï-lama, le texte expose l'histoire et les principes de la médecine tibétaine, avec des traitements et des remèdes représentant l'état de ses pratiques à la fin du XVIIe siècle. Il est précisé qu'ils « ne sont pas destinés à se substituer aux recommandations d'un professionnel de la santé »… Mais ils peuvent intéresser ceux, de plus en plus nombreux, qui cherchent une médecine différente. Et, surtout, ils sont accompagnés d'extraordinaires illustrations d'un Népalais contemporain, Romin Shrestha, réalisées avec des pigments naturels selon l'inspiration des illustrations de l'époque. Minutieuses, précises, poétiques, en de véritables explosions de couleurs, pour souvent aussi de magnifiques visions oniriques. Etonnant. Un cadeau original pour un médecin, entre autres. (Le Seuil, 290 francs.)
—Publié le 30 déc. 1998 (Les Echos)

> L'art de guérir au Tibet
Pour illustrer cet ouvrage, Romio Shrestha s'est servi de pigments naturels (lapis-lazuli pour le bleu, cinabre pour le rouge, sulfure d'arsenic et poudre d'or pur pour le jaune). De ces peintures minutieuses se dégage tout un univers de mystère et de trouble fidèle à la médecine archaïque du Tibet. Le texte n'apprend pas grand-chose, mais peu importe: à feuilleter ce beau livre, c'est l'imaginaire qui travaille, butinant d'image en image.
—Ariane Poulantzas (Lire), le 01 déc. 1998 (L'Express)

Not my cup of tea½

A visual presentation of Tibetan yoga, the hidden treasure at the heart of the Tibetan Tantric Buddhist tradition

• Explains the core principles and practices of Tibetan yoga with illustrated instructions

• Explores esoteric practices less familiar in the West, including sexual yoga, lucid dream yoga, and yoga enhanced by psychoactive substances

• Draws on scientific research and contemplative traditions to explain Tibetan yoga from a historical, anthropological, and biological perspective

• Includes full-color reproductions of previously unpublished works of Himalayan art

Tibetan yoga is the hidden treasure at the heart of the Tibetan Tantric Buddhist tradition: a spiritual and physical practice that seeks an expanded experience of the human body and its energetic and cognitive potential. In this pioneering and highly illustrated overview, Ian A. Baker introduces the core principles and practices of Tibetan yoga alongside historical illustrations of the movements and beautiful, full-color works of Himalayan art, never before published.

Drawing on Tibetan cultural history and scientific research, the author explores Tibetan yogic practices from historical, anthropological, and biological perspectives, providing a rich background to enable the reader to understand this ancient tradition with both the head and the heart. He provides complete, illustrated instructions for meditations, visualizations, and sequences of practices for the breath and body, as well as esoteric practices including sexual yoga, lucid dream yoga, and yoga enhanced by psychoactive plants. He explains how, while Tibetan yoga absorbed aspects of Indian hatha yoga and Taoist energy cultivation, this ancient practice largely begins where physically-oriented yoga and chi-gong end, by directing prana, or vital energy, toward the awakening of latent human abilities and cognitive states. He shows how Tibetan yoga techniques facilitate transcendence of the self and suffering and ultimately lead to Buddhist enlightenment through transformative processes of body, breath, and consciousness.

Richly illustrated with contemporary ethnographic photography of Tibetan yoga practitioners and rare works of Himalayan art, including Tibetan thangka paintings, murals from the Dalai Lama’s once-secret meditation chamber in Lhasa, and images of yogic practice from historical practice manuals and medical treatises, this groundbreaking book reveals Tibetan yoga’s ultimate expression of the interconnectedness of all existence.

Excellent read

Librería 1. Estante 4.

Some people write memoirs and it draws you into their lives. Some people write memoirs that are like reading check-off lists. This one is the latter.

Baker explores the sacred geography of the wild Tsangpo Gorge with a scholar's head, an adventurer's grit, and a pilgrim's heart, nicely documenting the contradictions of such exploration, which are at least as challenging as the landscape he enters. Where he falls a little short is on capturing more than the barest minimum of psychological detail about the other people who populate his story, or even himself, beyond what relates directly to his own spiritual quest. It makes him seem a bit aloof where social relationships, so important to most of our experience of reality, especially during such extreme situations as he describes, are concerned.

But you can't have everything--this is an underlying message of the book, in simplified form--well, actually, you can't have anything, in Buddhist terms--and for anyone who wants a better understanding of the whole idea of sacred geography, particularly as it is expressed in Tibetan Buddhism, with a good dose of both natural and geo-political history and a wonderful travelogue to boot, this book provides abundantly.

Leeches, cliffs, jungle, dead ends, porters who quit, food running out--repeat as necessary while convincing self, if not reader, that the quest is spiritual. Penetrate to a previously hidden area, then complain that others will follow.

This was an incredibly transformative book. Ian baker describes 20 years of trying to find a mythic place in the Himalayas known only through centuries old sacred texts. I picked this book up in February, 2006 and within a month I had applied to Pacifica Graduate Institute to start a Doctoral Program to further my study of sacred space. It has been less than 3 years now, and I am nearly through with coursework studying the phenomenal, the transpersonal, and the unconscious. I do not think I would have taken that step at this point without a life changing read!

Haunting. Not because it is the best example of travel writing. It isn't. Not because it engenders a deeper understanding of Tibetan Buddhism or the author's spiritual quest. All in all I would say that he engages in far too much navel gazing. Not because the descriptions of the landscape, the weather, the animals or the people were the finest I have ever read. The weren't. But for reasons I'm not sure I can fully articulate this book WAS haunting and has stuck with me from the first moment I saw the cover sitting on a "New Arrivals" shelf at the Issaquah, Washington Barnes & Noble store. Although none of the components I listed are the best I've seen, they still combine in such a way as to leave me yearning. The portrait on the front cover is for me the defining image of how I feel about the book, tantalizing glimpses seen through veils of mist. Promises of more if only I could find my way through.

This book is a true treasure. These are Dzogchen instructions painted on the inner walls of a private chapel used by the Dalai Lamas. It is equally interesting as art and as an instructional manual.

Some interesting content, but the writing is often tedious to suffer though, with far too many quotes, tangents, and names to make a coherent story.

He's also a bit hypocritical in his condemnation of the "competing" Chinese expedition in the last chapter, considering the nature and mission of his own expedition. He remarks on this irony at one point, but doesn't address it in any satisfactory way.

Color pictures, and captions on the pictures, would have been appreciated.

If you're interested in both Buddhism (particularly Tibetan Buddhism) and exploration, this is worth a read. If you're interested in only one or the other, there are probably better choices.½

amazon.com:

Tibetan medicine is becoming better known in the Western hemisphere, and this lavishly illustrated volume makes a great contribution to the dissemination of Tibet's medical knowledge. This work features the luminous recreations of traditional medical thanka paintings by the contemporary Nepalese master painter Romi Shrestha. The accompanying text by Ian Baker, who has studies with Hilalayan healers, yogins, and lamas, for fifteen years, unlocks the symbolism of these images for us. -- Yoga World.

Product Description:

This volume is intended as an artwork in itself and an object of meditation. Based on a revered collection, long considered lost, of Tibetan "thangkas" - elaborate scroll paintings that portray a philosophy of healing based on Buddhist beliefs, Ayurvedic practices and ancient shamanic traditions - these works may still have much to teach us. Created by a traditional artist from Nepal, Romio Shrestha, using the ancient technique of painting with rich minerals such as powdered gold, and lapis lazuli, the works are intended for the minutest contemplation. Divided into sections illuminating the Tibetan Buddhist view of physiology, pathology, diagnosis and cure, the book demonstrates the processes that sustain, enhance and ultimately transform the life-force. It addresses contemporary ills, such as stress, allergies and heart disease, offering practical advice on treatment and prevention. Going beyond cure, a final section introduces more esoteric perspectives on the interaction of body and mind, presenting the body itself as a source of insight and revelation.