You Have to Get Lost Before You Can Be Found: A Memoir of Suffering, Grit, and Love of the Himalayas and Basa Village

by Jeffrey Rasley

Jeff Rasley’s latest book is an adventure travelogue through the Himalayan region in prose and photos. This memoir traces his transition from an adventurous trekker and mountain climber to a committed “philanthro-trekker”. The flatlander from Indiana fell in love with the Nepal Himalayas trekking the Mt. Everest Base Camp Trail in 1995 after his wife told him to “go take a hike” as therapy for a mid-life crisis. He came back home but left again to learn mountaineering skills in Ladakh, India, from one of America’s greatest mountain climbers.

After several Himalayan expeditions and resolution of the mid-life crisis Jeff began leading trekking and mountaineering expeditions in Nepal. He returned to the Himalayas fourteen times in trekking and climbing expeditions from the Indian border with Pakistani Kashmir to Tibet and throughout Nepal. Over time the meaning Jeff found in the Himalayas went beyond mere adventuring to a deeper connection with the local cultures and communities. He closely studied the Tibetan-Buddhist culture of the Sherpas. But it was with the lesser known Rai people of Basa that Jeff developed a special relationship. The subsistence farmers in that remote Himalayan village turned him on to a simpler way of life, agnostic animism and super environmentalism.

Jeff’s relationship with Basa Village began through his friendship with Niru Rai, the owner of a mountain-adventure company based in Kathmandu. Niru, who grew up in Basa, staffed expeditions Jeff organized with Basa villagers. Their friendship deepened into a partnership to do “culturally sensitive development” in the Basa area of Nepal. They created sister foundations in the US and Nepal and have worked together on numerous development projects since 2007.

Age and injuries, and the hassles of international travel, have probably sidelined Jeff from anymore Himalayan adventures, but his work with the Basa Village Foundations continues. In this loving farewell he shares experiences of figuratively and literally being lost in the Himalayas and finding a new purpose in life. Along the way he encountered members of Sir Edmund Hillary’s family, Buddhist lamas, Hindu gurus, yaks, yetis, the highest mountains in the world and mountaineers who climbed them. His photos capture iridescent peaks, vast and melting glaciers, gigantic river gorges, Hindu and Buddhist artwork, temples, monasteries, and festivals, and people of many different ethnic-tribal-groups in the Himalayan region. The memoir includes tales of a deadly avalanche, frostbitten toes, a helicopter crash, snow leopard’s footprints, a murder-suicide, chanting monks, a dancing shaman, and becoming “dhai” (big brother) to the strongest and sweetest people on earth.

The book is a narrative of heart-wrenching suffering, leavened with wry humor, intertwined with poignant personal relations and breathtaking beauty.

496 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 9, 2019

About the author

(Author writes under the name Jeff Rasley)

Jeff Rasley is the author of sixteen books and over 80 feature articles, which have been published in numerous academic and mainstream periodicals, including Newsweek, Chicago Magazine, ABA Journal, Family Law Review, Faith & Fitness Magazine, Friends Journal, Journal of Communal Societies, and Real Travel Adventures International Magazine. He is an award-winning photographer and his pictures taken in the Himalayas and Caribbean and Pacific islands have been published in several journals.

Rasley has engaged in social activism and philanthropic efforts from an early age. In high school he co-founded the Goshen Walk for Hunger. In law school he was an advocate for renters' rights as a lobbyist and president of the Indianapolis Tenants Association. He is the founder of the Basa Village Foundation, past president of the Indianapolis Scientech Club and University of Chicago Indy Alumni Club. He served as a trustee for Earlham College, and is the president of the Scientech Foundation of Indiana and of the Basa Village Foundation. He is a director of the Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center and served as a director of the Indiana Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. He is a co-founder of the Jeff & Alicia Rasley Internship Program for the ACLU of Indiana.

Jeff is an avid outdoors-man and recreational athlete. He leads trekking-mountaineering expeditions in Nepal and has solo-kayaked around several Pacific island groups. He also loves to read and considers completing Marcel Proust's 3600 page Remembrance of Things Past as great an adventure as climbing Himalayan peaks and solo-kayaking Pacific islands.

Jeff is U.S. liaison for the Nepal-based Himalayan expedition company, Adventure GeoTreks Ltd. He has taught classes for IUPUI Continuing Ed. Program, Indiana Writers Center, Butler and Marian Universities.

Jeff is a graduate of the University of Chicago, A.B. magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, All-Academic All-State Football Team and letter winner in swimming and football; Indiana University School of Law, J.D. cum laude, Moot Court and Indiana Law Review; Christian Theological Seminary, MDiv magna cum laude, co-valedictorian and Faculty Award Scholar. He has been admitted to the Indiana, U.S. District Court, and U.S. Supreme Court Bars.

He was given a Key to the City of Indianapolis for serving as a law school intern to Mayor Hudnut and preparing a report on the safety conditions of all Indy Parks. Rasley has received the Man of the Year award from the Arthur Jordan YMCA and the Alumni Service Award from the University of Chicago.

Rasley has been a featured guest on over 200 podcast, radio, and TV shows and has given programs to many service clubs, community organizations, and churches.

jeffrasley@gmail.com
www.jeffreyrasley.com

Reviews

[Glen Craney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written, heartfelt account of the author's struggle to find himself and ultimately a region steeped in mystery and ineffable beauty. The passages describing the suffering and fear of the climbs are so vivid and sensory that you will wonder at how anyone could endure them. I came away with newfound respect and admiration for the Sherpas who risk their lives helping Westerners attain new heights in their physical and spiritual lives. Highly recommended.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about adventures in Nepal. A good insight into the delicacy of the culture and landscape of one of the most over romanticized places on the planet. You must respect the place in its entirety not just the harsh landscape people go to conquer.