New Delhi, June 13 -- The change in environment was stark. From the lonely offshore oil rigs of the freezing North Sea, Alex McKay, who was then in his 20s, landed in the oppressive heat of the subcontinent, rubbing shoulders with the multitude in unreserved train compartments and surviving on modest budgets. Overland travel on the Hippy Trail of the 1970s was as fascinating as it was frugal, the promise of an adventure enough reason to bring him back to explore a new region in spite of the hardships.

Somewhere during these journeys through India, McKay got an idea of what Tibet was like-until then he had only known it through books. He met Tibetan pilgrims in McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, who had covered long distances to seek the Dala...