Stephen Alter was raised by American missionary parents in the hill station of Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he and his wife, Ameeta, now live. Their idyllic existence was brutally interrupted when four armed intruders invaded their house and viciously attacked them, leaving them for dead. The violent assault and the trauma of almost dying left him questioning assumptions he had lived by since childhood. For the first time, he encountered the face of evil and the terror of the unknown. He felt like a foreigner in the land of his birth.

This book is his account of a series of treks he took in the high Himalayas following his convalescence—to Bandar Punch (the monkey’s tail), Nanda Devi, the second highest mountain in India, and Mt. Kailash in Tibet. He set himself this goal to prove that he had healed mentally as well as physically and to re-knit his connection to his homeland. Undertaken out of sorrow, the treks become a moving soul journey, a way to rediscover mountains in his inner landscape. Weaving together observations of the natural world, Himalayan history, folklore and mythology, as well as encounters with other pilgrims along the way, Stephen Alter has given us a moving meditation on the solace of high places, and on the hidden meanings and enduring mystery of mountains.

斯蒂芬-阿尔特由美国传教士父母在喜马拉雅山麓的穆索里山庄抚养长大，他和他的妻子阿米塔现在住在那里。他们的田园生活被残酷地打断了，四名武装入侵者侵入他们的房子，恶毒地袭击了他们，使他们死于非命。这次暴力袭击和几乎死亡的创伤使他对自己从小到大的生活假设产生了怀疑。他第一次遇到了邪恶的面孔和对未知事物的恐惧。在他出生的土地上，他觉得自己是个外国人。

这本书是他在疗养后在喜马拉雅山上进行的一系列徒步旅行的记录，包括班达蓬奇（猴子的尾巴）、印度第二高峰南达德维山和西藏的凯拉什山。他为自己设定了这个目标，以证明他在精神上和身体上都已痊愈，并重新将他与祖国联系起来。出于悲伤，这些徒步旅行成了一次动人的灵魂之旅，是他在内心风景中重新发现山的一种方式。史蒂芬-阿尔特将对自然界、喜马拉雅历史、民间传说和神话的观察，以及与沿途其他朝圣者的相遇交织在一起，为我们提供了一个关于高处的慰藉，以及关于山的隐藏意义和持久神秘的动人的冥想。