ABSTRACT
In this analysis I focus on Alexandra David-Neel’s writing, in particular on the critical reception of her work and the status her text has in terms of ‘truth’. David-Neel, born in France, is the only non-British writer whom I will consider; however, she wrote My Journey to Lhasa in English.1 She has an enormous reputation in France as an expert on Tibetan life and customs, and, in particular, on Tibetan Buddhism and Tantric practices.2 My Journey to Lhasa, when it was first published, sparked off a major debate, because the events recounted in the text seemed to describe events which were in western terms ‘improbable’ in two ways: firstly, because few people could believe that a woman had managed to travel to the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, on foot disguised as a Tibetan peasant, subsisting in freezing conditions on a diet of Tibetan barley meal tea. It was forbidden for foreigners to travel to Tibet, and both the traveller and the Tibetans who sheltered her ran the risk of imprisonment if discovered by the authorities. And secondly, in this book she related the occurrence of several events which, in western terms, were ‘fantastic’, for example, the appearance of a ghostly lama figure and mysterious events explained by reference to supernatural agency. Her text is a good example of how women have had to structure their texts in the light of potential accusations of exaggeration and falsehood, and how they have had to deal with accusations of lying after publication.
