BOOK REVIEWS
Títle: Land Of The Dawn Lit
Mountains
Writer: Antonia Bolingbroke-
Kent
Year: 2017
I
Títle: Through Dust And
Darkness
Writer: Jeremy Kroeker
Year: 2013
An area of India, close to the bor-
ders of Myanmar, Bhutan and Tibet
and the disputed territories of China
lays the state of Arunachal Pradesh;
Land of the Dawn Lit Mountains.
For travellers to venture here you
have to be adventuress, you need
to explore, to discover, to wonder.
Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent has prov-
en again that she is that person.
With the occasional guide, Ants
discovers a world that has been re-
markably untouched by the outside
world, by a fast developing India.
The culture remains as it has for
thousands of years and Ants discov-
ered a people that are full of respect,
love and happiness, perhaps due to
their faith in the gods or just living a
simpler life.
E
When Jeremy Kroeker begins to
question his own faith in Christiani-
ty, in religion, in God and sets off on
a journey of discovery, a journey to
witness what religion means, what is
God, who is God?
On a KLR650, which he quick-
ly discovers has a severe wobble in
the front wheel and where the bike
earns it's name, Oscillator, Jeremy
rides through the middle east dis-
covering the towns of the New Testa-
ment - towns that are very different
to his Christian upbringing.
A world where believers are called
without question to pray five times
a day, where beautifully decorated
mosques pay homage to a God, one
that Jeremy perhaps discovers is not
too different to his own.
Through Dust and Darkness devel-
TRAVERSE 85
Land of the Dawn Lit Mountains
is a beautifully crafted work, as Ants
describes her travels on foot and
with the aid of a little Hero motor-
cycle, perhaps the real hero of the
journey.
The reader is drawn deeper into
Arunachal Pradesh and the Land of
the Dawn Lit Mountains with every
turn of the page. Without realising
it you have become a passenger with
Ants and discovered what she has,
and before long you'll be saddened to
realise that this is the end, the jour-
ney if over.
Land of the Dawn Lit Mountains
is one of those rare books that trans-
ports you to another place ... and
you'll want more ...
W
S
ops the further Jeremy rides and by
doing so the readers discovers that
Jeremy is developing too. His faith is
challenged yet confirmed, he learns
that fundamentally all religions are
the same, perhaps needing to believe
a being that is not necessarily there,
needed to confirm a fruitful self-ex-
istence.
Through Dust and Darkness is not
just a book about religion and its
meaning, it's a book about self dis-
covery and awareness, a book about
people, cultures and situations.
You'll laugh all of the way through
Through Dust and Darkness yet like
Jeremy you will have the utmost re-
spect for the people he meets and
their beliefs, and perhaps even ques-
tion your own.