(en) Faith in fantasy and fiction Post Report, Kathmandu, 31 08 2015 : « I tend to recommend books to my friends as per their taste. If I had to recommend just ‘one’ book, it would surely be The Tiger for Breakfast: The story of Boris in Kathmandu. The book, written by Michel Peissel, is a second person account of Russian explorer Boris Lisanevich. It is an account of how Boris happened to come to Nepal and his struggles during his stay in this mountainous country of ours and his adventures. It also introduces us to a Nepal of 60 years ago. I think this is one book all Nepalis should read. »
(en) John H. Crook, The History of Zangskar, p. 435-474, in John Crook, Henry Osmaston (Eds.), Himalayan Buddhist Villages Environment, Resources, Society And Religion Life In Zagskar, Ladakh, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2001, (ISBN8120812018 et 9788120812017), 1029 p., p. 461-462 : « In the same year Michel Piessel [sic] trekked around Zanskar and later published his readable story (1979). Soon after, Bethlenfalvy (1980) and Klajkowski visited rDong.khul, Frial (1983) visited Zangla and Peissel returned with a BBC television film team. »
(en) Harish Kapadia, Across Peaks & Passes in Ladakh, Zanskar & East Karakoram, p. 52 (section 5, Trek to Shingo la and Phirtse la): « This trek to Zanskar and the route over Shingo la was made so popular by publication of the book, Zanskar The Hidden Kingdom by Michel Peissel who also made a TV film on Zanskar. This has, in particular, attracted many French trekkers, in what Bill Aitken calls 'Peissel's cultural colonisation of Zanskar' in his article, (see H.J., Vol. 45, p. 103). [...] Many of the trekkers we met had heard about or read the book but were not bothered about its contents. »
(en) Jonathan Mingle, Fire and Ice: Soot, Solidarity, and Survival on the Roof of the World, p. 134 : « if Zanskar has penetrated the wider consciousness at all, it is indeed as a place apart, inaccessible, unspoiled, a remote zone that is home to a pious and self-suficient people. (One of the first of the few books written about Zanskar was aptly subtitled The Hidden Kingdom.) »
himalayanclub.org
(en) Sudhir Sahi, compte rendu de Zanskar, the Hidden Kingdom de Michel Peissel, in Himalayan Journal(en), 37, 1979-1980 : « It is not that Zanskar is 'unexplored' nor even a 'Hidden Kingdom'. Travellers and climbers from within India and outside have crossed the passes into Zanskar for many years. […] As for kings, India now has none. / It is therefore annoying to be confronted with Peissel's penchant for 'discovery' and his claim to have 'found a lost valley hidden in the fold of the Himalaya'. / The chief merit of Peissel's Zans\ar is that it conclusively proves the limitations of pseudo-inquiry based, in this case, on misinterpretation of fact. Thus, we are told that the Shingo-la leads to India. Where, pray, does Peissel believe Zanskar is? In Tibet? Or outer Mongolia? [...]. Peissel suggests that there is antagonism between the 'Tibetan-speaking districts of Kashmir' and the 'superior Hindu administrators of New Delhi'. He forgets that it was India which provided a home for the victims of the Chinese invasion of Tibet. / From all the trivial details that clutter up his book, the conclusion is inevitable that he came with preconceived notions and was unable to fathom the diversity which is also the unity of India. Unfortunately, writing as shallow as Peissel's is seldom challenged because few members of the reading public travel to these areas. »
hovercraft-museum.org
(en) The Hovercraft Museum Newsletter, June 2008 : « Encouraged by the success of his first book "The Lost World of Quintana-Roo" which won a NAIS National Book Award he devoted his life to exploring the long forbidden far reaches of greater Tibet. »
(en) Sudhir Sahi, compte rendu de Zanskar, the Hidden Kingdom de Michel Peissel, in Himalayan Journal(en), 37, 1979-1980 : « It is not that Zanskar is 'unexplored' nor even a 'Hidden Kingdom'. Travellers and climbers from within India and outside have crossed the passes into Zanskar for many years. […] As for kings, India now has none. / It is therefore annoying to be confronted with Peissel's penchant for 'discovery' and his claim to have 'found a lost valley hidden in the fold of the Himalaya'. / The chief merit of Peissel's Zans\ar is that it conclusively proves the limitations of pseudo-inquiry based, in this case, on misinterpretation of fact. Thus, we are told that the Shingo-la leads to India. Where, pray, does Peissel believe Zanskar is? In Tibet? Or outer Mongolia? [...]. Peissel suggests that there is antagonism between the 'Tibetan-speaking districts of Kashmir' and the 'superior Hindu administrators of New Delhi'. He forgets that it was India which provided a home for the victims of the Chinese invasion of Tibet. / From all the trivial details that clutter up his book, the conclusion is inevitable that he came with preconceived notions and was unable to fathom the diversity which is also the unity of India. Unfortunately, writing as shallow as Peissel's is seldom challenged because few members of the reading public travel to these areas. »
