Old Ugly-Face
- ISBN-10
- 1484061233
- ISBN-13
- 9781484061237
- Pages
- 516
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2013-04-07
- Author
- Talbot Mundy
Description
Old Ugly Face is the nickname of a Tibetan lama, the Ringding Gelong Lama Lopsang Pun, an ascetic with an infectious laugh, a penchant for flogging sin out of wayward monks, and the power to overcome all obstacles in his way. This is the second novel dealing with Old Ugly Face s effort to protect Tibetan religious traditions from Russian, Japanese, and Chinese intrigue just prior to World War II, a sequel to the novel The Thunder Dragon Gate. It also continues the story of Elsa Burbage and her husband Tom Grayne, whom she left behind in a Tibet-tan cave to return to Darjeeling to have their child. The child was born, however, at 17,000 feet in the Himalayas during a blizzard, yet made it through that ordeal only to die after arriving safely in India. Elsa wishes to return to Tom, and persuades the American adventurer Andrew Gunning the man who brought her out of Tibet to let her join him in his clandestine journey back to Tom. This fast-paced adventure novel by Talbot Mundy is one of the greatest novels ever written of the rigors and tests of the spiritual path. It is Mundy at his best. Set in Tibet, the story concerns a group of men and women who are vitally involved in an exciting situation in that forbidden land of towering mountain peaks and age-old secrets. The Dalai Lama had died, and the choice of a successor to the most influential position in Tibet is a matter of utmost concern to the agents of various foreign governments and to Tom Grayne, unofficially representing the United States, Andrew Gunning, his free-lance friend, and Elsa Burbage, in Tibet under unusual circumstances. Above all, the future of Tibet lies in the hands of the Most Reverend Lobsang Pun, known as Old Ugly-Face, a wrinkled, stout Tibetan prelate of uncertain age, a genuine mystic whose mission in life is to preserve the seeds of sanity in a world gone mad. Grayne and Gunning are both in love with Elsa, and out of this conflict between life-long friends arises a drama of absorbing interest--a drama intensified by international intrigue, treachery, unbelievable courage in the face of the greatest adversity, and the prodigious efforts of Old Ugly-Face to win control of the newly appointed Dalai Lama.
