Beasts, Men and Gods: Russia, Mongolia, Tibet and the Living Buddha

If the tales by Ferdinand Ossendowski are true, then he led an extraordinary life. Ossendowski begins his account in a solitary shack in Siberia. Having heard that the police are coming for him, he sneaks off in the bitter cold, armed with an axe, guns, and many shells. Not surprisingly, after reading the initial portion of Ossendowksi’s draft, the publisher sought out a confirmed account. He was assigned a translator and critical editor to get him to offer full details. In addition to his life as an adventurer, Ossendowski considered himself a scientist as he traveled extensively throughout Asia. Given that he was was billed as a twentieth century Robinson Crusoe possibly the reader will be well advised that the book should be taken with a grain of salt. The account abounds with both wild adventure and ethnocentrism.