In Secret Mongolia (Mystic Traveller Series) - Softcover

Haslund-Christensen, Henning

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0932813275 ISBN 13: 9780932813275

Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press, 1995

Synopsis

The first book in Henning Haslund's Mongolia series, this book was originally published in 1934. This rare travel book has been out-of-print for 50 years but is now back in print. Haslund was a Danish explorer who also accompanied the Sven Hedin expedition in Central Asia. Haslund takes us into the barely known world of Mongolia, a country isolated from the world for centuries. Haslund's camel caravan takes him across the Gobi Desert where he meets with renegade generals and warlords, god-kings and shamans. Haslund is captured, held for ransom, thrown into prison, battles black magic and portrays in vivid detail the birth of a new nation. Meet the reincarnated gods: the 'Mad Baron' Ungern-Sternberg and Dambin Jansang, the dreaded Tushi Gun Lama of the Black Gobi, trek across the Gobi Desert, and go back in time to Shamanic Mongolia. Mongolia is a country which has only recently opened up to the world. 001

About this title

About the Author

Henning Haslund-Christensen was born in Copenhagen on 31 August 1896, and graduated from the Østersøgades Gymnasium in Copenhagen. He enrolled at the Army Academy and in 1918 was appointed second lieutenant in the Danish Army. In 1932, he married Inga Margit Lindström, daughter of C.F.J. Lindström of the Royal Swedish Navy and an Adjutant to H.M. the King of Sweden. In the early 1920s, Haslund joined a group led by a Danish physician named Carl Krebs, who aimed to establish a dairy farm in northern Mongolia, close to the Russian border. They travelled via China and Ulaanbaatar, and established themselves in what is today Erdenebulgan sum in Khövsgöl province. However, the dairy farm project failed due to Mongolia coming under stronger Soviet influence, and Haslund left Outer Mongolia in the mid-1920s. Fascinated by the Mongol way of life, Haslund remained in Inner Mongolia for the following years, e.g. joining Sven Hedin for the Sino-Swedish Scientific Expedition of the late 1920s. After the war, Haslund organised and led the Third Danish Expedition to Central Asia, which lasted six years. A first team, consisting of anthropologists, botanists, geographers, and zoologists would work during 1948 and 1949 in Afghanistan, from Nuristan in the east to Herat in the west, under his leadership. This would extend scientific knowledge to the south-east of the Pamirs and Iran explored respectively by Ole Olufsen in 1896-7 and C. G. Feilberg in 1936. Unfortunately, Haslund's death in 1948 left the Expedition leaderless and the expedition members finished their work as best they could. A new leader was appointed in 1950 but the rest of the plan for the expedition was never accomplished due to the political situation from 1950 onwards. He died of heart failure in Kabul on 13 September 1948

Edition details

• Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0932813275
• ISBN 13: 9780932813275
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 300