India\'s North-East Frontier in the Nineteenth Century

A few years ago a book was published about the North-East Frontiers Agency of India under the Hidden Land, and it is true that until 1947 there was little recorded of this great country bordered to the west by Bhutan, to the north by Tibet and China, to the south-east by Burma, and to the south by the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam. Yet it was not altogether unknown, for throughout the nineteenth century. It was visited by a number of explorers, administrators, tea-planters and missionaries who wrote vivid accounts of what they saw. Unfortunately, their articles, mostly published in learned journals and official reports are almost inaccessible to the ordinary reader, and their books have long been out of print and today are collectors’ pieces. 

In this book, Dr. Verrier Elwin, who has been Adviser for Tribal Affairs to the North-East Frontier Agency Administration for the past five years, has collected extracts from this almost forgotten literature and has edited them with an introduction, notes and a full bibliography.