Blue Sky Kingdom
An Epic Family Journey to the Heart of the Himalayas
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A warm and unforgettable portrait of a family letting go of the known world to encounter an unfamiliar one filled with rich possibilities and new understandings.
Bruce Kirkby had fallen into a pattern of looking mindlessly at his phone for hours, flipping between emails and social media, ignoring his children and wife and everything alive in his world, when a thought struck him. This wasn't living; this wasn't him. This moment of clarity started a chain reaction which ended with a grand plan: he was going to take his wife and two young sons, jump on a freighter and head for the Himalaya.
In Blue Sky Kingdom, we follow Bruce and his family's remarkable three months journey, where they would end up living amongst the Lamas of Zanskar Valley, a forgotten appendage of the ancient Tibetan empire, and one of the last places on earth where Himalayan Buddhism is still practiced freely in its original setting.
Richly evocative, Blue Sky Kingdom explores the themes of modern distraction and the loss of ancient wisdom coupled with Bruce coming to terms with his elder son's diagnosis on the Autism Spectrum. Despite the natural wonders all around them at times, Bruce's experience will strike a chord with any parent—from rushing to catch a train with the whole family to the wonderment and beauty that comes with experience the world anew with your children.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this uplifting travelogue, Kirkby, a Canadian travel journalist and photographer, recounts how he and his family fled the pressures of society to "slow down" in a Himalayan Buddhist temple. Addicted to iPhones and exhausted from their oldest son, seven-year-old Bodi's, autism spectrum diagnosis and treatment, Kirkby and his wife, Christine, decided to depart on their "fantasy" with their two children: a journey by canoe, container ship, train, and trekking, to the thousand-year-old Karsha Gompa in Zanskar, India (a three-month trip). Along the way, Kirkby and Christine teach English to novice monks and are adopted by Lama Wangyal, who gives them Tibetan names, a practical matter for pronunciation but also, Kirkby notes, an "honour." Interspersed are facts about the Dalai Lama, Buddhist rituals, India's history, and Chinese "territorial claims over Tibet," with examples of prejudice against Tibetans in India (Wangyal is unable to obtain a visa to travel to Canada, despite Kirkby's interventions). Kirkby has an eye for detail, imbuing even the most mundane tasks with meaning. Emotional reflections on the journey, Bodi's "leaps in development," and Kirkby's "newfound ability to... actually meet Bodi where he is," are juxtaposed with keen observations on the modern world encroaching on Zanskar. It's poignant and gently provocative, much like a prayer flag blowing in the wind.
