Bertha Bolette Boyd, mountaineer and author, travels to Bhutan in the 1930s. Bhutan is landlocked, impenetrable and isolated. Monasteries cling to buttresses. At an elevation of 7578 metres, Bhutan’s Gangkar Punsum is the highest unclimbed mountain on Earth. The mountain is sacred. Culture has a place in nature. Landscape is balanced by the humbleness of Buddhism. Bertha has read Castles in the Air (National Geographic Journal, 1915). She climbs to monasteries, and further to mountain passes at 4900m above sea level. Bhutan is the country where colonialism completely failed; therein lies the foundation for other stories. Bertha travelled solely to see and experience – not to discover or lay any foundation for colonization. Bertha travels back to Bhutan three times. The stories from these expeditions: Among Mountains & Monasteries (2016), The Jhomolhari Chapter (2017) and Gangkhar Puensum (2018) constitute The Bhutan Trilogy.

This is the second book of The Bhutan Trilogy. The book is 444 pages, designed by Anette L’orange and introduced with an essay by Stephanie von Spreter. It includes a section of writings and a section of plates for each chapter, a map of all trails done on three expeditions to Bhutan – being Bertha’s travels as well as my own – an inventory list of all belongings and finally Endnotes, a chapter on what happens on the other side of the camera, in our own time.