A first-person travel narrative recounts an expedition through the Himalaya into the Tibetan interior, illustrated with photographs, sketches and a self-made map. The author records landscape observations—glaciers, high passes and sacred lakes—and surveys geographic questions such as the relation of neighboring lakes and the headwaters of a major river. Encounters range from hospitable highland communities and monastic life to violent confrontations with bandits and hostile authorities, including captivity and harsh interrogations. Practical travel detail, ethnographic sketches and accounts of survival and escape combine with topographical notes and cultural impressions.