“Pioneering in Tibet: The Life and Times of Dr. Albert Shelton tells the story of this sturdy adventurer who worked in Kham from 1904 to 1922. It also provides an account of the Sino-Tibetan clashes then taking place in this turbulent region, a foretaste of the tragedy that was to befall the whole of Tibet three decades later.”
—His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, from his prologue to Pioneer in Tibet
“Pioneer in Tibet is a fascinating and well-written account of pioneer days in that remote land’s emergence into Western history, including the violent and chaotic period when European powers first challenged Chinese control in the imperial machinations and blunders of the ‘Great Game.’ ”
—Peter Matthiessen, author of National Book Award winner, The Snow Leopard
“To the Christian missionaries at the turn of the century, Tibet represented the great apostolic challenge, a satanic coven of mythic dimensions that shimmered in their imaginations,’ Douglas A. Wissing writes in Pioneer in Tibet. [Wissing’s] insights on American missionary life and Shelton’s daring make for a lively narrative.”
—Priyanka Motparthy, New York Times Review of Books
“A thrilling true adventure story of courage and mystery against the tumultuous backdrop of Tibetan history. One is fascinated and enriched by this beautifully written book that reveals much about the American hero and the mysteries of Tibet. This fascinating tale lingers long after the last chapter is concluded.”
—Mabel Cabot, author of Vanished Kingdoms: A Woman Explorer in Tibet, China, and Mongolia 1921-1925
“Mention the name Dr Albert Shelton and most Americans would be hard pressed to place him. Yet his name should rank alongside those of the world’s great explorers and missionaries, such as Dr David Livingstone of Africa, who sought out the last frontiers when there was still virgin territory left for Westerners to conquer. Author Douglas Wissing has done us a great service in tracking down the story of fellow Indiana native Shelton, whose medical mission helped many in eastern Tibet. Pioneer in Tibet: The Life and Perils of Dr Albert Shelton tells the largely forgotten story of the man, his successes, setbacks and fame, and his eventual failure to win over the Tibetan Buddhists to Christianity. Wissing’s delving reveals a missionary largely won over by the Tibetans, with his grand ambitions tempered by his growing understanding and appreciation of Tibetan Buddhist culture. Now finally there is a book that allows him rightly to take his place alongside other famous missionaries and adventurers. Maybe we should leave it to Shelton’s Tibetan friends to offer a fitting tribute. As they simply put it: ‘A good man dies at the top of the pass with his boots on.’ ”
—Julian Gearing Asia Times
“Pioneer in Tibet opens a new window on the period in Asian history a century ago when the remoteness and supposed mysteries of Tibet and its border regions were a magnet for an endless stream of explorers, adventurers, free-booters, spies and missionaries. Albert Shelton was one of the last Westerners to have actually lived there, and Douglas Wissing’s account of his life is an engrossing narrative of how things once were in that evocative land, as well as of how much things have changed since.”
—Orville Schell, author of Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-la from the Himalayas to Hollywood, and Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley.
“A remarkable story about a remarkable man. Not only did Albert Shelton bring medical care to a bandit-infested area of Tibet and introduce treasures from Tibetan life to Americans, but he also ranks high among that forgotten and misunderstood breed of pioneering missionaries, erudite and open to the culture around them, who made inhospitable places home and gave their lives to the people they served.”
—Barbara Crossette, author of So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhists Kingdoms of the Himalayas and New York Time correspondent
“Beautifully written, Pioneer in Tibet is a compelling exploration of the gutsy rhythms, the pioneering spirit that is at once particularly American and universal in its ability to awaken the spirit, that longing for exploration and discovery.”
—George Crane, author of Bones of the Master: A Journey to Secret Mongolia
“Dr. Albert Shelton, itinerating evangelist, was a man of myriad guises – adventurer, missionary, surgeon, linguist, fundraiser, soldier, avid collector of Tibetan artefacts, and, of course, pioneer… Shelton even survived kidnapping by brigands, and the surreal image of him teaching his captors hymns is one of the many that make this book no common thing.”
—Sarah Crowden, Geographical
“Murder along the Himalayan trail caps off Pioneer in Tibet, but that gives nothing away on Douglas Wissing’s true-life account of Dr. Albert Shelton. His life was rich with Indiana Jones antics, enduring an 80-day kidnapping by brigands and exploring Tibet via mules. [Wissing’s] dedication to Shelton’s story purportedly brings the mystery to a close. In the process, he solves the bigger enigma of a larger-than-life figure that was a doctor, ethnologist, spy and diplomat.”
—Brandon Brady, Cincinnati City Beat
“Wissing, a freelance writer who has written for the New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic Traveler and other publications, intended to write a magazine article about Shelton, but soon realized he had the makings of a book. Now, after five years of work, he’s completed Pioneer in Tibet: The Life and Perils of Dr. Albert Shelton, which Palgrave MacMillan has just published. The book offers a compelling account of one of the West’s first interpreters of Tibetan culture, set against a fascinating backdrop of Tibetan history.”
—Lynn Cline Santa Fe New Mexican
“During the early twentieth century, Shelton won acclaim for his travels, becoming as well known in his time as the famous Dr. David Livingstone did for his adventures in Africa. In researching his book, Wissing, whose work has appeared in national newspapers and magazines, traveled throughout the Himalayas from northern Yunnan across Tibet, Nepal, and India to the range’s terminus on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He also explored the Kham region of eastern Tibet, which had been closed to foreign travelers for almost a century. His determined efforts to capture the essence of his subject reminds me of a quote attributed to Nobel Prize-winning William Faulkner, who observed, ‘Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all to get the book written.’”
—Ray Boomhower, Traces Magazine