The Marching Wind

by Leonard F. Clark

Leonard Clark was a lifelong enemy of fear, common sense, and all the other elements that usually define "normal" people. During The Second World War he headed the United States espionage system in China. When that global conflict came to a peaceful conclusion, Clark turned his relentless energy towards exploring the most dangerous and inaccessible places on the globe. Case in point was his decision to lead a mounted expedition of Torgut tribesmen into Tibet! The official reason for Clark's decision to "invade" this mountainous kingdom on horseback in 1949 was his decision to prepare an impregnable base for General Ma Pa-fang, a violently anti-communist Moslem general. Yet romantic adventure ran deep in Clark, which helps to explain why he was journeying through one of the world's least known and most forbidding regions in the center of Asia. He was also eager to find and measure a mysterious mountain in the Amne Machin range rumored to be higher than Mount Everest. The only problem was that the sacred mountain was guarded by the fearsome Ngolok tribesmen. "The Marching Wind" is the panoramic story of Clark's mounted exploration in the remote and savage heart of Asia, a place where adventure, danger, and intrigue were the daily backdrop to wild tribesman and equestrian exploits. Amply illustrated with Clark's photographs, as well as maps he drew in Tibet, this rediscovered classic was originally published soon before the author's death from injuries he received while exploring the Amazon rainforest.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Leonard Francis Clark is one of the “lost stars” of twentieth-century exploration. Never a proponent of big expeditions and elaborate paraphernalia — he carried his own belongings and charged ahead be it on foot, on horseback, dug-out canoe or questionable aircraft. This trait of self-reliance initially enabled him to perform extraordinary feats of military intelligence and reconnaissance in difficult and dangerous areas during the Second World War. Clark, who had attended the University of California, joined the army and first flew in China behind Japanese lines. With his intimate knowledge of local affairs, Clark was asked by the American OSS, forerunner of the CIA, to organize guerrilla activity and espionage in China and Mongolia. After attaining the rank of colonel, Clark turned his prodigious energies towards exploration by leading expeditions in Borneo, Mexico, the Celebes, Sumatra, China, Tibet, India, Japan, Central America, South America, and Burma. The dashing adventurer died while on a diamond-mining expedition in Venezuela

Reviews

[T. Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The publisher’s preamble to this book nicely describes the events of how Leonard Clark, a very unconventional American traveller, set out to explore a forbidden area of the mountainous border of China in the winter of 1950. The result is a first-hand account of one of the most adventurous travel books I have read. He convinces the governor (ruler) of remote Tsinghai province, Ma Pu-fang, to finance his expedition and he sets out with a chest of gold to pay for supplies along the way. The caravan he leads has over 100 animals (yaks, horses, mules, oxen) and a cast of colorful Chinese, Tibetan and Muslim herders and soldiers. Along the way, they survive many dangers, including threats from local tribesmen (Ngoloks) who resent any outsiders entering their sacred mountains, blinding blizzards and temperatures down to -30 Centigrade, 13,000-feet unmarked icy mountain passes, running so low on food supplies that they need to hunt wild game or eat boiled yak meat to survive. He does survive and is never in doubt of his success. Along the way, he also helps the reader learn a lot about the Buddhist and Tibetan culture from a multitude of interactions with local inhabitants.

[Alberto Della Rossa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doppio titolo per un libro pubblicato da Garzanti nel 1960 e che nelle edizioni successive diventa Alle sorgenti del fiume giallo. Partiamo da Leonard Clark: esploratore, avventuriero, spia, impiccione e ammazzasette ammmmericano che ha fatto del vagabondaggio un’arte. È lo stesso dell’eccezionale (e ben più famoso) I fiumi scendevano a oriente. Clark è uno di quei personaggi ombra che in qualche modo ha influenzato il corso della storia, organizzando attività di guerriglia e chissà cos’altro in Cina, Tibet e Mongolia in supporto alla frangia cinese musulmana e anticomunista di Ma BuFang. In questo diario di viaggio, Clark narra della spedizione del 1949 in Mongolia per cercare la mitica vetta dell’Amne Machin che al tempo si vociferava fosse più alta dell’Everest. Alla guida di una carovana di guerriglieri musulmani e tibetani affronta valli, laghi salati, fortilizi e accampamenti, banditi ngolok, predoni, monaci e capi-tribù in cerca delle sorgenti del fiume Giallo e della mitica vetta. All’aspetto più avventuroso si intrecciano considerazioni di tipo tattico e strategico (dopotutto era un colonnello dell’OSS americano) per ostacolare l’avanzamento della rivoluzione comunista cinese nei territori dell’asia centrale.
Le considerazioni sono due: il quadrante centro asiatico è al centro degli interessi delle potenze mondiali dalla fine dell’800. Ciò che narra Clark è quindi storicamente accurato e perfettamente inseribile nel contesto geopolitico dell’epoca. Il suo resoconto è però tutto fuorché obiettivo e – sospetto – in diversi punti MOOOOOOLTO romanzato. Alcune osservazioni e aspetti culturali proprio non tornano – soprattutto se confrontati con quanto descritto in altri testi risalenti a una ventina d’anni prima (Giuseppe Tucci in primis). Il libro non è facile da leggere, ma è comunque un documento importante e appassionante, da prendere però con le pinze. Voto: 4/5 (perché sono appassionato dell’argomento, altrimenti 3/5).