Maps, places, path

Maps

High-res (600dpi) maps, hand-drawn by Chogyam Trungpa. View/zoom here or save to your device.

Kham/East Tibet map (Chapters 1-4). Red: chief places mentioned in narrative.

Kham/East Tibet map (Chapters 1-4). Red: chief places mentioned in narrative.

Route of the escape, from Drolma Lhakang Monastery (upper right) to Tuting (lower left).

Route of the escape, from Drolma Lhakang Monastery (upper right) to Tuting (lower left).

Google Earth - Places, paths

Seeing the spectacular scenery that the escapees confronted adds much to the power of the story.

Using Google Earth paths and placemarks, you can follow the journey, view the actual landscape in 3D -- see Navigation in GE menu -- and also check the height of mountains, altitude of the climbs, and so on. 

  • Google Earth must be installed on your device
  • Open FLJ Places, paths file by clicking here
  • Either open Google Earth from the popup button, or save FLJ Places, paths file to your device, then click to open in Google Earth

The file contains both placemarks and the route as far as currently established (see Notes below).

NOTES: Accuracy of Google Earth FLJ Path:

  1. Places -- towns, villages, monasteries -- and rivers are almost 100% accurate.
  2. Although some specific locations are a bit unclear (for example, the precise location of Sharkong La Pass), the general path is around 95% accurate from the beginning of the journey at Drolma Lhakang (Ch.5) to the point where the group entered the Tong-gyug Valley (Ch. 9).
  3. Little is known of the route after the group became lost (end of Ch. 9) to when they reached the Serkyem Pass.
  4. The point where the group crossed the Brahmaputra is accurate to within a few hundred yards; the precise route they took through wild, untracked terrain over the Himalayas until they rejoined the Brahmaputra is unclear.