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Beyond the Devil's Teeth: Journeys in Gondwanaland
"Forty-five million years ago, the supercontinent of Gondwanaland split apart. This created what are now known as India, Africa and South America. The huge landmass was named after the Gond people of India. Meeting a Gond storyteller on a visit to Bombay, Tahir Shah heard their ancient saga. He vowed to visit all three parts of Gondwanaland. As he travelled he met an extraordinary range of wanderers and expatriates, attended magical ceremonies and sought mythical treasures. Roughing it most of the way, Shah's expeditions move through sweltering India and Pakistan, Uganda and Rwanda, Kenya and Liberia, Brazil and finally Argentina's Patagonian glaciers.
Roughing it for most of the journey, Shah shared his travels and his tales with a diverting mix of eccentric and entertaining characters, from Osman and Prideep, Bombay's answer to Laurel and Hardy, to Oswaldo Rodrigues Oswaldo, a well turned out Patagonian version of Danny De Vito.
"
About the Author
"Tahir Shah is the author of fifteen books, many of which chronicle a wide range of outlandish journeys through Africa, Asia and the Americas. For him, there's nothing so important as deciphering the hidden underbelly of the lands through which he travels. Shunning well-trodden tourist paths, he avoids celebrated landmarks, preferring instead to position himself on a busy street corner or in a dusty café and observe life go by. Insisting that we can all be explorers, he says there's wonderment to be found wherever we are - it's just a matter of seeing the world with fresh eyes.
Shah's forthcoming novel, TIMBUCTOO, is inspired by a true life tale from two centuries ago. The story of the first Christian to venture to Timbuctoo and back - a young illiterate American sailor - it has been an obsession since Shah discovered it in the bowels of the London Library twenty years ago.
He recently published a collection of his entitled TRAVELS WITH MYSELF, a body of work as varied and as any, with reportage pieces as diverse as the women on America's Death Row, to the trials and tribulations of his encounter in a Pakistani torture jail.
Another recent work, IN ARABIAN NIGHTS, looks at how stories are used in cultures such as Morocco, as a matrix by which information, values and ideas are passed on from one generation to the next. That book follows on the heels of the celebrated CALIPH'S HOUSE: A Year in Casablanca, lauded as one of Time Magazine's Top 10 Books of the year.
His other works include an epic quest through Peru's cloud forest for the greatest lost city of the Incas (HOUSE OF THE TIGER KING), as well as a journey through Ethiopia in search of the source of King Solomon's gold (IN SEARCH OF KING SOLOMON'S MINES). Previous to that, Shah published an account of a journey through the Amazon on the trail of the Birdmen of the Amazon (TRAIL OF FEATHERS), as well as a book of his experiences in India, as a godman's pupil (SORCERER'S APPRENTICE).
Tahir Shah's books have appeared in thirty languages and in more than seventy editions. They are celebrated for their original viewpoint, and for combining hardship with vivid description.
He also makes documentary films, which are shown worldwide on National Geographical Television, and The History Channel. The latest, LOST TREASURE OF AFGHANISTAN, has been screened on British TV and shown worldwide. While researching the programme Shah was arrested along with his film crew and incarcerated in a Pakistani torture jail, where they spent sixteen terrifying days and nights.
His other documentaries include: HOUSE OF THE TIGER KING, SEARCH FOR THE LOST CITY OF GOLD, and THE SEARCH FOR KING SOLOMON'S MINES. And, in addition to documentaries, Shah writes for the big screen.
Roughing it for most of the journey, Shah shared his travels and his tales with a diverting mix of eccentric and entertaining characters, from Osman and Prideep, Bombay's answer to Laurel and Hardy, to Oswaldo Rodrigues Oswaldo, a well turned out Patagonian version of Danny De Vito.
"
About the Author
"Tahir Shah is the author of fifteen books, many of which chronicle a wide range of outlandish journeys through Africa, Asia and the Americas. For him, there's nothing so important as deciphering the hidden underbelly of the lands through which he travels. Shunning well-trodden tourist paths, he avoids celebrated landmarks, preferring instead to position himself on a busy street corner or in a dusty café and observe life go by. Insisting that we can all be explorers, he says there's wonderment to be found wherever we are - it's just a matter of seeing the world with fresh eyes.
Shah's forthcoming novel, TIMBUCTOO, is inspired by a true life tale from two centuries ago. The story of the first Christian to venture to Timbuctoo and back - a young illiterate American sailor - it has been an obsession since Shah discovered it in the bowels of the London Library twenty years ago.
He recently published a collection of his entitled TRAVELS WITH MYSELF, a body of work as varied and as any, with reportage pieces as diverse as the women on America's Death Row, to the trials and tribulations of his encounter in a Pakistani torture jail.
Another recent work, IN ARABIAN NIGHTS, looks at how stories are used in cultures such as Morocco, as a matrix by which information, values and ideas are passed on from one generation to the next. That book follows on the heels of the celebrated CALIPH'S HOUSE: A Year in Casablanca, lauded as one of Time Magazine's Top 10 Books of the year.
His other works include an epic quest through Peru's cloud forest for the greatest lost city of the Incas (HOUSE OF THE TIGER KING), as well as a journey through Ethiopia in search of the source of King Solomon's gold (IN SEARCH OF KING SOLOMON'S MINES). Previous to that, Shah published an account of a journey through the Amazon on the trail of the Birdmen of the Amazon (TRAIL OF FEATHERS), as well as a book of his experiences in India, as a godman's pupil (SORCERER'S APPRENTICE).
Tahir Shah's books have appeared in thirty languages and in more than seventy editions. They are celebrated for their original viewpoint, and for combining hardship with vivid description.
He also makes documentary films, which are shown worldwide on National Geographical Television, and The History Channel. The latest, LOST TREASURE OF AFGHANISTAN, has been screened on British TV and shown worldwide. While researching the programme Shah was arrested along with his film crew and incarcerated in a Pakistani torture jail, where they spent sixteen terrifying days and nights.
His other documentaries include: HOUSE OF THE TIGER KING, SEARCH FOR THE LOST CITY OF GOLD, and THE SEARCH FOR KING SOLOMON'S MINES. And, in addition to documentaries, Shah writes for the big screen.
- GenresTravelNonfiction
359 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1995
6 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Tahir Shah
153 books625 followersTahir Shah was born in London, and raised primarily at the family’s home, Langton House, in the English countryside – where founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell was also brought up.
Along with his twin and elder sisters, Tahir was continually coaxed to regard the world around him through Oriental eyes. This included being exposed from early childhood to Eastern stories, and to the back-to-front humour of the wise fool, Nasrudin.
Having studied at a leading public school, Bryanston, Tahir took a degree in International Relations, his particular interest being in African dictatorships of the mid-1980s. His research in this area led him to travel alone through a wide number of failing African states, including Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire.
After university, Tahir embarked on a plethora of widespread travels through the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and Africa, drawing them together in his first travelogue, Beyond the Devil’s Teeth. In the years that followed, he published more than a dozen works of travel. These quests – for lost cities, treasure, Indian magic, and for the secrets of the so-called Birdmen of Peru – led to what is surely one of the most extraordinary bodies of travel work ever published.
In the early 2000s, with two small children, Tahir moved his young family from an apartment in London’s East End to a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. The tale of the adventure was published in his bestselling book, The Caliph’s House.
In recent years, Tahir Shah has released a cornucopia of work, embracing travel, fiction, and literary criticism. He has also made documentaries for National Geographic TV and the History Channel, and published hundreds of articles in leading magazines, newspapers, and journals. His oeuvre is regarded as exceptionally original and, as an author, he is considered as a champion of the new face of publishing.
www.tahirshah.com
www.twitter.com/humanstew
www.facebook.com/TahirShahAuthor
http://www.youtube.com/user/tahirshah999
www.pinterest.com/tahirshah
Along with his twin and elder sisters, Tahir was continually coaxed to regard the world around him through Oriental eyes. This included being exposed from early childhood to Eastern stories, and to the back-to-front humour of the wise fool, Nasrudin.
Having studied at a leading public school, Bryanston, Tahir took a degree in International Relations, his particular interest being in African dictatorships of the mid-1980s. His research in this area led him to travel alone through a wide number of failing African states, including Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire.
After university, Tahir embarked on a plethora of widespread travels through the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and Africa, drawing them together in his first travelogue, Beyond the Devil’s Teeth. In the years that followed, he published more than a dozen works of travel. These quests – for lost cities, treasure, Indian magic, and for the secrets of the so-called Birdmen of Peru – led to what is surely one of the most extraordinary bodies of travel work ever published.
In the early 2000s, with two small children, Tahir moved his young family from an apartment in London’s East End to a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. The tale of the adventure was published in his bestselling book, The Caliph’s House.
In recent years, Tahir Shah has released a cornucopia of work, embracing travel, fiction, and literary criticism. He has also made documentaries for National Geographic TV and the History Channel, and published hundreds of articles in leading magazines, newspapers, and journals. His oeuvre is regarded as exceptionally original and, as an author, he is considered as a champion of the new face of publishing.
www.tahirshah.com
www.twitter.com/humanstew
www.facebook.com/TahirShahAuthor
http://www.youtube.com/user/tahirshah999
www.pinterest.com/tahirshah
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 27, 2023
I am a big fan of Tahir Shah, and I mean with all respect, that this book reads as an early work. It had the same excellent content, unusual interactions with interesting people, and quirky expansions of reality (yeah, some stretching of reason and massaging of belief is occasionally required), but it lacked the flow and polish of Tahir Shah's more recent works.
For me, from the very beginning, this book seemed more like a story shoe-horned into an overarching concept, rather than a realistic concept with a story unfolding under it. The whole Gondwanaland link seemed too tenuous to me, and didn't add to the book.
Having pointed out the negatives, this is still a great read. Shah attracts off-beat people, and participate in their weirdness, and survive to write about it.
Travels in this book are supposed to further the authors own research in to Gondwanaland - and touch on India and Pakistan (fairly extensively). Then Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia on the West Coast of Africa, Congo DR in Central Africa, and Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya on the East Coast of Africa. In South America, he spends time in Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina. No mention of Australia and Antarctica - which were pretty important parts of Gondwanaland, even if New Zealand wasn't a big part.
Still - can't go wrong with this author. 3.5 stars, rounded up.
For me, from the very beginning, this book seemed more like a story shoe-horned into an overarching concept, rather than a realistic concept with a story unfolding under it. The whole Gondwanaland link seemed too tenuous to me, and didn't add to the book.
Having pointed out the negatives, this is still a great read. Shah attracts off-beat people, and participate in their weirdness, and survive to write about it.
Travels in this book are supposed to further the authors own research in to Gondwanaland - and touch on India and Pakistan (fairly extensively). Then Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia on the West Coast of Africa, Congo DR in Central Africa, and Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya on the East Coast of Africa. In South America, he spends time in Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina. No mention of Australia and Antarctica - which were pretty important parts of Gondwanaland, even if New Zealand wasn't a big part.
Still - can't go wrong with this author. 3.5 stars, rounded up.
May 25, 2019
A travelling take
What a tale this was. Written in the mid 1990s it reminded me of my own adventures. Tahir is able to capture the moment so perfectly . His bravery in exploring experience as well as scenery is the adventure .
What a tale this was. Written in the mid 1990s it reminded me of my own adventures. Tahir is able to capture the moment so perfectly . His bravery in exploring experience as well as scenery is the adventure .
April 12, 2013
When I first read, and thoroughly enjoyed, ‘Beyond the Devil’s Teeth,’ just after it was first published, I assumed it was a straightforward account of a long and arduous, surprise generating journey through Gondwanaland, the super-continent which existed when India, Africa and South America were joined. Eighteen years later, I am more aware of Tahir Shah’s extraordinary powers of observation; of the incredible imagination which allows him to create works which are finely balanced between fact and fiction; and of the humour which can bubble up into his writing.
The journey starts when he flies to India in search of antique treasure. A Mumbai tailor supplies him with shirts of sackcloth and boxer shorts of silk, and finds two assistants to help in the quest. One is a translator because the other is illiterate, cannot speak English and communicates through Indian sign language. The treasure is more elusive than expected, but the search for it brings him to places tourists rarely, if ever, see, in Mumbai, Dehli, and on the edge of the Thai desert. It allows him to meet people like pimps and arms dealers whom tourists tend to avoid; and he finds treasure in the shape of regal Rachana whom he succeeds in dating.
Before he leaves North Gondwanaland, his sister Saira entices him to Pakistan with promise of treasure. It is just after the Soviet-Afghan war, and the frontier town of Peshawar is full of reporters, aid-agency workers and heavily armed Mujahadin. The Russians have left Afghanistan, but warrior factions fight over the country. Saira brings Tahir to a hospital where child victims of the conflict are being treated.
The journey through Central Gondwanaland, starting in Senegal and ending in Kenya, is gruelling and hindered by bullying officials. Everywhere there is evidence of the brutality of totalitarian regimes, but the kindness of simple people touches his heart. One of the aims of the journey is to learn about African healing. A penfriend in Sierra Leone brings him to see his Babalawo but, when it becomes evident that the latter needs blood for his Borfima, Tahir’s travelling companion takes fright. Later in Manaus on the Amazon, following a chance encounter at a fish market, he has the opportunity to attend a Macumba initiation ritual. Macumba is a Brazilian cult originating in Nigeria.
Travelling through South America, from Venezuela to Patagonia, Tahir feels the force of nature as strongly as he did in Africa. There he climbed the Nyiragongo vulcano, went to see mountain gorillas in Rwanda and was conscious of the abundance of insect life. In Brazil he sees intact rainforest, the devastation caused by its removal, and the unwillingness of people to accept that our incursions are not without consequence.
‘Beyond the Devil’s Teeth’ is a book written at more than one level; but Tahir Shah is an immensely gifted storyteller and it can be enjoyed at any level. I don’t pretend to understand it at all its levels, and it leaves me with questions. Are the writer’s travelling companions real or imaginary? Do they represent aspects of himself which need to be integrated? Did the ill-equipped expedition to a glacier in Patagonia really take place? The inevitable next question is, ‘What is reality?’
The journey starts when he flies to India in search of antique treasure. A Mumbai tailor supplies him with shirts of sackcloth and boxer shorts of silk, and finds two assistants to help in the quest. One is a translator because the other is illiterate, cannot speak English and communicates through Indian sign language. The treasure is more elusive than expected, but the search for it brings him to places tourists rarely, if ever, see, in Mumbai, Dehli, and on the edge of the Thai desert. It allows him to meet people like pimps and arms dealers whom tourists tend to avoid; and he finds treasure in the shape of regal Rachana whom he succeeds in dating.
Before he leaves North Gondwanaland, his sister Saira entices him to Pakistan with promise of treasure. It is just after the Soviet-Afghan war, and the frontier town of Peshawar is full of reporters, aid-agency workers and heavily armed Mujahadin. The Russians have left Afghanistan, but warrior factions fight over the country. Saira brings Tahir to a hospital where child victims of the conflict are being treated.
The journey through Central Gondwanaland, starting in Senegal and ending in Kenya, is gruelling and hindered by bullying officials. Everywhere there is evidence of the brutality of totalitarian regimes, but the kindness of simple people touches his heart. One of the aims of the journey is to learn about African healing. A penfriend in Sierra Leone brings him to see his Babalawo but, when it becomes evident that the latter needs blood for his Borfima, Tahir’s travelling companion takes fright. Later in Manaus on the Amazon, following a chance encounter at a fish market, he has the opportunity to attend a Macumba initiation ritual. Macumba is a Brazilian cult originating in Nigeria.
Travelling through South America, from Venezuela to Patagonia, Tahir feels the force of nature as strongly as he did in Africa. There he climbed the Nyiragongo vulcano, went to see mountain gorillas in Rwanda and was conscious of the abundance of insect life. In Brazil he sees intact rainforest, the devastation caused by its removal, and the unwillingness of people to accept that our incursions are not without consequence.
‘Beyond the Devil’s Teeth’ is a book written at more than one level; but Tahir Shah is an immensely gifted storyteller and it can be enjoyed at any level. I don’t pretend to understand it at all its levels, and it leaves me with questions. Are the writer’s travelling companions real or imaginary? Do they represent aspects of himself which need to be integrated? Did the ill-equipped expedition to a glacier in Patagonia really take place? The inevitable next question is, ‘What is reality?’
February 3, 2022
Aug 29th 2018.......Page 57... old printed edition.
'Another week passed and I asked Prideep and Osman to try and find out if there was a town hall in Bombay. They both thought however that it was totally logical to be taken to the control tower of an airport when asking for the main building of public affairs. I began to get to grips with the fact that it might be me who was going insane......'
'Do I look cuckoo to you Vinod?'
'Sahib you not a cloo-koo.'
And so it goes on... but Tahir Shah is mad in a special way and it behoves one to keep one's reading eye open. Do read this book. Beyond the Devils Teeth. Oct 19th 2013. The journey through Gondwanaland is strewn with sights/insights. Some shocks too. It culminates in the ice mountains of Patagonia, with a magic ring which you have to know how to use. 27th July 2018. 'We stood together: he waited for my reply. I gazed out through the long panes of glass to lake Kivu, which sprawled away from the bottom of the once-landscaped gardens. Such beauty enveloped the place that it seemed enchanted, as if by a spell. I thought back to the pollution of the West, the problems of its societies and the misdeeds of educated men. The guardian looked expectantly his eyebrows knotted together and I addressed him. 'Where we come from there are bad men. They lie, they steal, they are discouteous; these are the values which they teach each other: even the educated, on the Other Side. Monsieur........ We have come to Zaire to increase our own education. We shall return soon to our own countries, but we must return alone.''
Chapter.... My name is Zakaria.
'...Marcus stepped forward, his arms outstreched towards the Zarean. His palms cupped his pet chicken with a string dangling from one ankle. The old man took the bird and thanked Marcus with feeling. We all knew that there was a severe lack of protein in the Kivu region and the bird was destined for the pot.' I had forgotten alot of this book and have been looking through it. Full of revealing stuff missed on a first read. It is a ground plan. July 2021.
'Another week passed and I asked Prideep and Osman to try and find out if there was a town hall in Bombay. They both thought however that it was totally logical to be taken to the control tower of an airport when asking for the main building of public affairs. I began to get to grips with the fact that it might be me who was going insane......'
'Do I look cuckoo to you Vinod?'
'Sahib you not a cloo-koo.'
And so it goes on... but Tahir Shah is mad in a special way and it behoves one to keep one's reading eye open. Do read this book. Beyond the Devils Teeth. Oct 19th 2013. The journey through Gondwanaland is strewn with sights/insights. Some shocks too. It culminates in the ice mountains of Patagonia, with a magic ring which you have to know how to use. 27th July 2018. 'We stood together: he waited for my reply. I gazed out through the long panes of glass to lake Kivu, which sprawled away from the bottom of the once-landscaped gardens. Such beauty enveloped the place that it seemed enchanted, as if by a spell. I thought back to the pollution of the West, the problems of its societies and the misdeeds of educated men. The guardian looked expectantly his eyebrows knotted together and I addressed him. 'Where we come from there are bad men. They lie, they steal, they are discouteous; these are the values which they teach each other: even the educated, on the Other Side. Monsieur........ We have come to Zaire to increase our own education. We shall return soon to our own countries, but we must return alone.''
Chapter.... My name is Zakaria.
'...Marcus stepped forward, his arms outstreched towards the Zarean. His palms cupped his pet chicken with a string dangling from one ankle. The old man took the bird and thanked Marcus with feeling. We all knew that there was a severe lack of protein in the Kivu region and the bird was destined for the pot.' I had forgotten alot of this book and have been looking through it. Full of revealing stuff missed on a first read. It is a ground plan. July 2021.
July 30, 2025
This experience reminds me of reading Eat, Pray, Love. Three sections that were fun, challenging, and somewhere in between, individually.
I found myself laughing out loud during the first section in India. Author found himself in predicament after predicament, along with a pair of local sidekicks. Having been there myself, I could believe the incidents were at least based on real-life situations, crazy though they sounded, if not a bit exaggerated for effect.
Africa was pretty much nonstop grim, straight through. His sidekicks there more-or-less suffered along with him. I've read many African travel narratives to realize that there can be good times, or at least interesting ones, along with the poverty and chaos. Doesn't help that he spent most of his time in a couple of the most dangerous countries possible: Liberia and Zaire. So, the middle section was like being in a barely lit tunnel. Rather a whiplash effect to me.
Part Three in South America, sadly, featured one of the most repellent, loathsome characters I've run across, so over-the-top I suspended disbelief to get through it. But, it had its moments. Not nearly as grim as Africa, a sort of uneven mixture of the first two sections.
I'm a fan of the author, who wrote this when quite young; so, it's more a "completist" read I'd say. Recommended only for a free, or at least cheap, copy.
I found myself laughing out loud during the first section in India. Author found himself in predicament after predicament, along with a pair of local sidekicks. Having been there myself, I could believe the incidents were at least based on real-life situations, crazy though they sounded, if not a bit exaggerated for effect.
Africa was pretty much nonstop grim, straight through. His sidekicks there more-or-less suffered along with him. I've read many African travel narratives to realize that there can be good times, or at least interesting ones, along with the poverty and chaos. Doesn't help that he spent most of his time in a couple of the most dangerous countries possible: Liberia and Zaire. So, the middle section was like being in a barely lit tunnel. Rather a whiplash effect to me.
Part Three in South America, sadly, featured one of the most repellent, loathsome characters I've run across, so over-the-top I suspended disbelief to get through it. But, it had its moments. Not nearly as grim as Africa, a sort of uneven mixture of the first two sections.
I'm a fan of the author, who wrote this when quite young; so, it's more a "completist" read I'd say. Recommended only for a free, or at least cheap, copy.
September 28, 2021
A myraid collection of experiences that are combined under the umbrella of Gondwanaland. There is nothing much about the Gonds, but the collection includes travels to India, parts of Africa and South America. But in each of the adventures the author manages to tag along some improbable characters who start out as funny but end up saving him in more ways that one - these made me take things with a pinch of salt. In terms of travel, the Indian parts were well written and relatable, African ones seemed like fantasy, and South American ones seemed like a footnote.
January 29, 2017
Talented writer with a fantastic ability to describe place and people. A shame it's so overdone with just unbelievable bullshit. Why one asks, when it's sooo unnecessary to his story? One reviewer spoke of the need for a "suspension of belief" to enjoy his stories fully. For me, I prefer my travel literature and non-fiction rather more accurate and truthful. Paul Theroux speaks of his bullshit detector becoming ever more finely calibrated as he aged. Well , with this book, all the alarm bells are ringing loudly!!! 1 star raised to 2 only due to writing quality. Unfortunately, honesty weighs far heavier with me! Disappointing!
June 9, 2015
I love anything written by Tahir Shah. He's a fantastic traveler, visiting places and hotels never mentioned in the tour guides for good reason and meeting the oddest people. As though the stories aren't strange and fascinating in themselves, his writing is spot-on funny. Try one of his books, any one, and you'll become addicted as I have.
July 28, 2011
One of the first book I read by Shah.
February 15, 2014
brilliant
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews