Reviews

GOING TO DOLPO:

Reviews

Writing with the concision of Hemmingway and the philosophical depth of Hesse, Tim Doyle gives us in Going to Dolpo a kind of extended haiku, which reveals rather than resolves the unutterable mystery at the heart of things.
--John Horgan, former senior writer at The Scientific American and author of Rational Mysticism, The Undiscovered Mind, and The End of Science

A story with no explanation, a journey with no apparent purpose and people who flit in and out of the narrative with no reason, just as in life. A unique and enjoyable book.
--Susan Blackmore, author of The Meme Machine and Consciousness

An author's long hike across Nepal with a Sherpa guide would naturally lead to an adventure story or travelogue, but author and photographer Tim Doyle's Going to Dolpo is a short work of art and a long prose poem, seven chapters of breathtaking landscapes and buddhist mindscapes. His book sweeps through currents of motion and stillness, balancing here-and-now physical demands with careful reflection. The journey to Dolpo becomes the destination--an opportunity for a traveler to learn how to craft his experiences in perfect rhythm with one another, finding authenticity in the middle path between ordinary and extraordinary.
--Julie Ann Herringa, of The Shepherd Express

Going To Dolpo, by Timothy Doyle, is a unique travel account of a walk from the lowland valleys of Nepal to the snowbound canyons of Dolpo -- an area south of the Tibetan border. A rumination about the human mind and humankind’s destiny, as well as an unfolding panoply of sights and wonders during a physical and spiritual pilgrimage, Going To Dolpo is an involving testimony of a journey that reflects life itself.
--Midwest Book Review

Going to Dolpo is a rare blend of travel, personal growth and challenge.
--Jon Carlson, professor of Psychology and Education, Governor’s State University.

Tim Doyle captures the experience of westerners traveling in the spiritually charged third world. It’s all there: the pristine beauty, the hardships, the poverty and desperation, the ecstasy and the drive to keep going for both adventure and wisdom. He writes in a way that you can taste the dal and smell the incense. It’s awakened that adventurous bone in me that’s been sleeping the last couple of years and I’m fully inspired to purchase some iodine tablets and check the web for cheap flights heading east.
--Ray Cappo, musician and author of Zen and the Art of Punk Rock

One finds oneself drawn, almost against one’s will, into this metaphysical On The Road. Going to Dolpo is part National Geographic noir and part inquiry into Buddhism. Our simultaneous journey through these two worlds offers no answers, no neatly wrapped conclusions—and yet, at the end, we are surprised at the strange satisfaction we are left with. Going to Dolpo is a meeting place between Brautigan and Melville.
-Joe Nolte, Godfather of the South Bay punk scene, currently plays in The Last and Misfortune Cookie.