Dervla Murphy, The Waiting Land - A Spell in Nepal

In 1965 Dervla Murphy spent seven months in Nepal, a mountainous kingdom in the Himalayas.  The record of her adventures was published soon afterwards as The Waiting Land - A Spell in Nepal.

Quite a spell!  Visions conjured by Murphy's pen are enchanting indeed.  Festivals brimming with colours.  Majestic mountains and exotic wildlife.  The Nepalese, with their curious traditions and habits.  Joys and sorrows of rough travel through a country that only a few years previous had begun its journey towards modernity. 

Once again (see Tibetan Foothold) Tibet and Tibetans feature largely in the book.  Major part of Dervla's stay was spent working in a Tibetan refugee camp.  The mixture of nationalities one encounters in The Waiting Land is actually quite dazzling:  various indigenous tribes are spiced with the citizens of China, India and divers 'first world' countries.  There is no one like Dervla Murphy to observe the quirks and peculiarities of mixing cultures so anyone interested in sociology is in for quite a treat. 

The book does read a bit like a history textbook.  No, don't run, I don't mean to say that it's full of boring academese, The Waiting Land is totally readable.  It's just that plenty of water has passed under the bridge since 1965 and a lot has changed in Nepal.  It's not a kingdom anymore, to name the first shift springing to mind, but I'm sure the transformation goes much deeper.  Dervla provides a good amount of background information AD 1965, so if you happen to know something about Nepal as it is today (I don't!), you'll be able to appreciate the difference. 

To tell you the truth, I'm slowly running out of ideas for creative and original praising of Murphy's writing.  Perhaps the best way to communicate my admiration is this:  The Waiting Land is the 17th book of the author that I've read recently and I still haven't had enough.  One can hardly expect more. 

Dervla Murphy, Tibetan Foothold

Some time ago I realised that I had got as far as I could get on my own in the quest to track all Dervla Murphy books.  It was time to enlist a librarian's help. 

Most librarians in my local book source are sweet, friendly and helpful, but one or two individuals can only be described as intimidating.  Just my luck that I chanced upon a gentleman of the latter kind when I finally got down to serious hunting business...  It took some courage and no small amount of patience, but Dervla Murphy is worth surviving any amount of grumpiness.  To be fair, I got my books and quickly, too - yipee!

I'm working through the list chronologically, so the three titles I've checked out so far are all from the sixties.  Today's book, Tibetan Foothold, was published directly after Murphy's debut, Full Tilt, and it is really the second chapter of the same journey. 

Let me explain.  After the famous cycling expedition from Ireland to India, Dervla found herself in Delhi with much time to spare and the weather too hot to cycle.  She needed somewhere to bunk over until colder part of the year and she chose to fill the gap by doing some volunteer charity work.  Those days India was swarming with refugees from Tibet and Dervla was sent to a nursery for Tibetan children in Dharamsala. 

In contrast to other Murphy travel memoirs, Tibetan Foothold is almost stationary.  Sure, the itching feet took the tireless adventurer on quick treks whenever she could get away from care giving duties, but most of the book was written in the nursery where she worked.  That doesn't mean that the result is in any way inferior to other titles in Dervla's bibliography.  Just the opposite:  it is as fascinating as her most daring expeditions.  Clearly it is the case of beauty in the eye of a beholder...  or huge, huge writing talent.

I couldn't shake the feeling that Dharamsala experiences influenced Dervla for life.  The girl full tilting from Europe to Asia was curious and eager for an adventure, but only in Tibetan Foothold one can observe the emergence of humanitarian activism that became Murphy's trademark later on.  Of course, you'd need to ask the author herself to see if I'm right, but of one thing I am sure:  Dervla Murphy's conscience was alive and kicking almost from the beginning of her writing career.  This is probably the single most vivid detail distinguishing her from other writers:  she cares.  I'm usually sceptical when I stumble against too loudly expressed compassion, but in this case I am convinced.  Murphy is simply too human, too real in her reactions to possibly fake it.  She gets angry, muddles things, doubts, makes mistakes - in short, she's as far from pink-bubblegum-perfect as it is possible to be.  I'm convinced. 

Then again, I've been under a spell since the first encounter with Dervla. 

Two more titles coming soon. 

Dervla Murphy, One Foot In Laos

One Foot in Laos is one of the 'mature' Dervla Murphy books.  First published in 1999, it is far more political than her early travel memoirs.  Some may find this off-putting, I consider it a welcome improvement.  If you browse through recent posts on this blog you will notice that I am in the position to judge - I've been immersed in the Dervla Murphy world for quite a while now.

This is not to say that her earlier books are below par, oh no.  It's just that, like wine, Dervla's writing improves with age.  Consciousness, political or otherwise, tends to grow as the years go by. 

Laos in the late '90s as seen through Dervla Murphy's eyes was an enchanting land, with friendly people and stunning natural beauty.  Unfortunately, shadows are also present in this picture and the author doesn't attempt to hide any of them, just the opposite. 

UXO, or unexploded ordnance, must surely be named the greatest menace of the country.  Laos has the unwelcome distinction of being the most heavily bombed country in the world (in proportion to its population).  Plenty of the bombs that rained on the country during the Vietnam War failed to explode.  Those grim 'souvenirs' maim and kill even today.  Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme's website confirms figures quoted by Dervla in the book, and these are truly heartbreaking statistics.  Even more heartbreaking are Dervla's descriptions of her encounters with UXO victims.  No, One Foot in Laos is not exactly a cheering reading matter. 

Environmental damage is another blight threatening Lao land.  Forests are fast disappearing, to emerge again as furniture in wealthier countries.  Numerous dams, planned or already in operation are negatively impacting lives of millions.  In accordance with her trademark conservationism, Dervla Murphy rages against the destructive development projects with enough passion to convert many readers back to green lifestyles.

While humanitarian/environmental activism takes up a lot of space in One Foot in Laos, there's certainly plenty of it left for descriptions of culture, customs, cuisine (quite exotic) of Lao people and colourful adventures of a certain Irish traveller.

A gem of enlightened travel writing. 

Dervla Murphy, Where the Indus is Young

Among the many reasons why I love Dervla Murphy is this one:  she's the most effortless geography teacher I have ever come across. 

Do you know where the Baltistan is?  I do, now, but if you asked me a week ago, I would reply with a perplexed stare.  Baltistan?  Isn't it somewhere around the Baltic Sea? 

(No, actually I knew that it's nowhere near the Baltic, I was born in Poland and I'm familiar with the geography of the region.  Still, I think the resemblance of the two place names is uncanny, worthy of a further investigation to establish if it's a coincidence).

The Baltistan is, in fact, a mountainous region in Northern Pakistan, consisting mainly of habitable valleys between the Karakoram peaks.  It is a pretty inhospitable terrain, with little vegetation and extremely cold winters.  Into one such winter, 1974/5, Dervla Murphy and her (then) six year old daughter, Rachel, went pony-trekking. 

Temperatures falling more than thirty degrees below zero.  Scarce food, spartan accommodation.  Mountainous, precipice-hugging tracks with a tendency to disappear.  Rock avalanches falling across the aforementioned tracks.  These are only some of the hazards that winter in Baltistan can offer. 

I'm sure all parents will read Where the Indus is Young with fascinated horror.  These days children are reared in ultra-protective environments and Baltistan is anything but.  It is probably a good idea to stress here that both mother and daughter survived their adventure without any major injuries.  Even though they did not wash or change clothing for three months...  Yeah, that's another shocking (to a Western mind) aspect of their journey.  I guess freezing temperatures blunt one's yearning for hygiene.  Personally, I was completely not surprised to hear that such a spell of 'dirty living' did no harm, but I do know people who faint at the very thought of bacteria.  They probably shouldn't read this book...

Everyone else - please do not hesitate to reach for it when you have a chance, especially if you appreciate travel writing of the very best sort.

Dervla Murphy, Full Tilt

If you've been visiting Bookworm's Cave frequently, you probably already suspect that I intend to read EVERYTHING by Dervla Murphy. I'm slightly less than halfway there at the moment, with eight books read and reviewed (including today's), one waiting on the shelf and only, ehm, fifteen to go. 

(Now that I did the maths I can see that I'm more like one third there but hush, don't tell anyone)

I embarked upon this quest for one simple reason:  Murphy's books are amazing.  I haven't yet come across an author who would offer such a perfect mixture of readability, sense of humour, vivid conscience, kindness, courage and...  well, I could probably continue with half a page of further praiseworthy qualities but I try to avoid monstrous sentences when I can.  You surely get the picture. 

Living in Ireland helps in the quest.  Having been born and raised in Co. Waterford, Dervla Murphy is a bit of a national treasure and as such is fairly well represented in Irish libraries.  I said 'fairly', because getting hold of all her books will still take some tracking (and perhaps an Amazon purchase or two), but I'll get there in the end.  Howgh!

Full Tilt is the very first of Murphy's travelogues.  She wrote it in 1963, during an epic bicycle journey from Ireland to India.  When I say 'during', I mean it:  the book is mostly a transcript of her diaries, written on the go. 

It was interesting to study the difference between 'early Dervla' and 'mature Dervla'.  Her unmistakable style is there from the very start (not really a surprise).  So are frugality, skillful use of language and 'Irish charm'.  What's missing is a lifetime of experience as a travel writer, visible not in the language itself, but in general attitude.  Full Tilt's journey feels like an adventure of a lifetime, not a way to earn a living.  As I'm well acquainted with Dervla's stories by now, it gave me funny sense of omniscience, as in 'I know how your life will go from now and you don't know it yet...'. 

What else is different?  There's very little politics in Full Tilt, no typical Murphy-esque activism.  At the age of 32, Dervla was already sharply distrustful of the so-called progress and sensitive to injustice, but not yet a fully-fledged activist.  Fair enough.  Such writing, if it's to have any value at all, requires maturity. 

When it comes to the book's structure...  Let's just say that Murphy improved with age.  Full Tilt is marketed as Ireland-India trip, but distance between Ireland and Iran in covered in the first 18 pages, India gets the final 9 and the bulk of the narrative is really given over to Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Not a fault in itself, but I felt somewhat cheated (and this is as far as I'm willing to go in criticising Dervla Murphy).  The story ends abruptly - too abruptly - but it is continued in Murphy's second book, Tibetan Foothold. 

I'm so looking forward to it!