Caravan to Tibet - Softcover

Caravan to Tibet is deeply rooted in my own family history and Debu's journey into Tibet is one that my ancestors actually undertook every year.
   I grew up in Almora, a small town in Uttaranchal, but knew that my grandfather came from a place much further north, where life was quite different from our rather staid middle-class existence. Male cousins who undertook the trek to Milam to learn more about their origins returned with enthralling tales. (Girls were considered too delicate to make the trip!) They told us about the nomadic lifestyle, the annual trade expeditions, the explorers Pandit Nain Singh and Kishan Singh Rawat, and other members of our extended family who had mapped Tibet disguised as lamas in the nineteenth century. Some of my aunts, occasionally my father, would add to that material. Though our connections with that past had become limited, the colourful rugs or chutkas that Debu  tries to sell were part of our household furnishings along with the silver-lined wooden bowls Sonam Darka uses in the book. And uncles or cousins from the village would visit as well, occasionally making the journey on horseback.
    All these accounts were so fascinating, that when I took up writing as a profession, I just had to put them into a story. After further research, Caravan to Tibet was penned and appeared first as a long short story in the annual number of the well-known children's magazine Target in 1989. Much later, in 2001, it was serialized with a few slight changes in Cricket, the popular American children's magazine. Some time after that, I decided to expand it into an adventure novel, and am very happy that it has found a home with Puffin Books.
Certain political events led to the end of the trade expeditions in the 1950s, and the Shauka traders have adopted other professions. However, I do hope I have succeeded in providing a glimpse of those exciting times and that my readers enjoy this adventure tale.

Author, poet and translator, Deepa Agarwal writes for both children and adults and has about 50 books published. Among several other awards national and international, she has received the N.C.E.R.T. National Award for Children's Literature for her picture book Ashok's New Friends, while her historical fiction Caravan to Tibet featured in the IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Honour List 2008. Five of her books have been listed in the White Raven Catalogue of the International Youth Library, Munich. She is a regular contributor to children's magazines in India and abroad and her stories have appeared in many anthologies and school text books. Her work has been translated into several Indian and foreign languages as well. Recent titles include Write Right (Scholastic India) and Rajula and the Web of Danger (Hachette India). Deepa is active in reading promotion, being the founder-organiser of the Habitat Children's Book Forum in New Delhi.