Commons Reading Resource Guide - Three Cups of Tea: Books & Poems Mentioned in Three Cups of Tea

Selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two line stanza with two parts (or hemistechs) per line, hence the word "Rubaiyat" (derived from the Arabic root word for 4), meaning "quatrains."

The quote in Chapter 2 is from the Edward Henry Whinfield translation, stanza 241.

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An account of a 1958 Italian climbing expedition. An excellent description of the Karakorams and of the upper Baltoro Glacier. Also contains observations about the Balti people.

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The dramatic, often amusing story of Sir Edmund Hillary’s return to the Himilayas in March 1963, to fulfill a promise -- to repay the Sherpas, a rugged Himalayan people, with schools, water systems, and medical aid, for the loyal and courageous service they have rendered to many mountaineering expeditions over the years -- and to do a bit of climbing. At the close of the 1960 scientific mountaineering expedition which he described in High in the Thin Cold Air, Sir Edmund Hillary asked his native helpers what one thing they most desired. The answer was, “schools,” and an old Sherpa remarked: “Our children have eyes, but they are still blind.”

This mountaineering classic is an essential reference for novices and experts alike. Chapters are devoted to in-depth discussions of outdoor fundamentals; climbing techniques for rock, snow, and ice; safety procedures and emergency response; geology and weather; and appendices for climb ratings and supplementary reading, among other topics. Detailed sections on navigation, ropes, knots, and protection include drawings, diagrams, and maps. Enjoy the freedom of the hills to the fullest with this thorough guide.

The Gesar epic encompasses a vast range of ancient Central Asian cultural and spiritual traditions. As its center, Gesar, King of Ling, battles tirelessly in a world riven by greed, confusion, fear, and religious ambition to open pathways to an enlightened society. "The Warrior Song of King Gesar" follows the unbroken heritage of that warrior tradition and presents the saga of Gesar's life, from the hardships of his youth through his great battles against the demonic enemies of the four directions.

An adventure story of a different kind. It is the record by one of the world's foremost animal biologists of his study of Himalayan sheep and goats over the better part of a six-year period. These animals, known by such obscure names as markhor, tahr, urial, argali and bharal, had been little studied before Schaller, who hoped to answer such fundamental scientific questions as whether the bharal was in fact a goat or a sheep. The biology of sheep and goats may seem a trifle esoteric, but Schaller is one of those rare scientists who can write absorbingly for the layman. Schaller is attempting to preserve something in danger of being lost, and his passion for his subject informs every page.

A new translation of nearly a hundred poems by the 13th-century Sufi mystic, Jalal ad-Dīn Muhammad Rumi, whose work has undergone an immense revival in the West during the last decade. Best known for his love poetry, Rumi was actually a theologian, and most of his verse is explicitly religious in both tone and content, and heavily mystical in the manner of St. John of the Cross.

The poem beginning Chapter 11 is "There is a Candle."

A gripping portrait of the western Himalayan land sometimes known as “Little Tibet,” Ancient Futures opens with author Helena Norberg-Hodge’s first visit in 1975 to idyllic, preindustrial Ladakh. She then tracks the profound changes that occurred as the region was opened to foreign tourists and Western goods and technologies, and offers a firsthand account of how relentless pressure for economic growth precipitated generational and religious conflict, unemployment, inflation, and environmental damage, threatening to unravel Ladakh’s traditional way of life.

Energized by the fate of a people who had captured her heart, Norberg-Hodge helped establish the Ladakh Project (later renamed the International Society for Ecology and Culture) to seek sustainable solutions that preserve cultural integrity and environmental health while addressing the hunger for modernization. Since then, other Ladakh-based projects have proliferated, supporting renewable energy systems, local agricultural methods, and the spiritual foundations of Ladakhi culture.

Rabindranath Tagore was a Nobel Laureate for Literature (1913), as well as one of India’s greatest poets. He composed the national anthems of both independent India and of Bangladesh. He wrote successfully in all literary genres, but was first and foremost a poet, publishing more than 50 volumes of poetry. He was a Bengali writer who was born in Calcutta and later traveled around the world. He was knighted in 1915, but gave up his knighthood after the massacre of demonstrators in India in 1919.

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When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly toward the top. No one had noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six hours later and 3,000 feet lower, in 70-knot winds and blinding snow, Krakauer collapsed in his tent, freezing, hallucinating from exhaustion and hypoxia, but safe. The following morning, he learned that six of his fellow climbers hadn't made it back to their camp and were desperately struggling for their lives. When the storm finally passed, five of them would be dead, and the sixth so horribly frostbitten that his right hand would have to be amputated.

Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of the bestseller Into the Wild.