India, July 11 -- In 1898, the wandering ascetic Swami Ramananda Bharati set out towards one of the most remote and revered destinations in the world: Mount Kailash and Manasarovar in Tibet. Himaranya, now translated by Somdatta Mandal as The Forest of Snow, chronicles this expedition across the high Himalayas - through Joshimath, Niti, Hoti Pass and beyond - capturing the majesty of snowbound peaks, roaring rivers, sacred shrines, and the hardships of life at the edge of empire. Bharati writes vividly of highland communities who migrate with the seasons. Blending spiritual reflection with sharp ethnographic observation, his narrative moves beyond conventional pilgrimage writing to offer one of the earliest modern Bengali accounts of travel into Tibet....