Theodore Illion or Theodor Illion (born 1898 in Canada?) was a writer of travel books who claimed to have visited Tibet in the 1930s and discovered an underground city there. He published his Tibetan adventures under that name but later resorted to the pseudonyms Theodore Burang or Theodor Burang and more rarely Theodor Nolling to write various books and articles on Tibetan medicine.
According to Professor Herbert Novak, a longtime friend of Theodore Illion, the latter was born in Canada in a wealthy family descended from a branch of the British royalty, the Plantagenets. He is supposed to have left home at a very young age.
if you're going into this one expecting an ethnographic journey in Tibet thorough earpy 20th century western eyes, you got it right. 20% of the book corresponds with this expectation. The rest is spiritual bubble if you're into it, and anecdotes about the hypocrisy of most Tibetan hermits and Lamas. At least it's short. :)
One of the most fascinating fictional books I've even read. It tells of one man's journey alone, disguised and by foot into Tibet. What makes it even more interesting is that it is a first person account written in the mid 1930's by a German, just prior to the war.