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A Journey Of Discovery In Asia's Forbidden Wilderness
Island Books
April 2003
On Sale: April 17, 2003
336 pages ISBN: 1559638001 EAN: 9781559638005 Paperback
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Non-Fiction
In 1993, Alan Rabinowitz, called "the Indiana Jones" of
wildlife science by The New York Times, arrived for the
first time in the country of Myanmar, known until 1989 as
Burma, uncertain of what to expect. Working under the
auspices of the Wildlife Conservation Society, his goal was
to establish a wildlife research and conservation program
and to survey the country's wildlife. He succeeded beyond
all expectations, not only discovering a species of
primitive deer completely new to science but also playing a
vital role in the creation of Hkakabo Razi National Park,
now one of Southeast Asia's largest protected areas.Beyond
the Last Village takes the reader on a journey of
exploration, danger, and discovery in this remote corner of
the planet at the southeast edge of the Himalayas where
tropical rain forest and snow-covered mountains meet. As we
travel through this "lost world" -- a mysterious and
forbidding region isolated by ancient geologic forces -- we
meet the Rawang, a former slave group, the Taron, a solitary
enclave of the world's only pygmies of Asian ancestry, and
Myanmar Tibetans living in the furthest reaches of the
mountains. We enter the territories of strange,
majestic-looking beasts that few people have ever heard of
and fewer have ever seen -- golden takin, red goral, blue
sheep, black barking deer. The survival of these ancient
species is now threatened, not by natural forces but by
hunters with snares and crossbows, trading body parts for
basic household necessities.The powerful landscape and
unique people the author befriends help him come to grips
with the traumas and difficulties of his past and emerge a
man ready to embrace the world anew. Interwoven with his
scientific expedition in Myanmar, and helping to inform his
understanding of the people he met and the situations he
encountered, is this more personal journey of discovery.
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