Altai-Himalaya by Nicholas Roerich, 1st ed.

Altai-Himalaya, Nicholas Roerich. Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York. First edition, 1929. This third printing is preceded by two prepublication printings. Twenty pages of black and white reproductions of Roerich’s paintings. Very good condition. Bright gilt lettering and design on front cover. Wear at corners and spine ends. Tanned spine and edges. Mild discolorations. Deckled fore edges (sawed edges), which resulted in three pairs of leafs still connected at the end of the book. Clean, unmarked pages.

Nicholas Roerich was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, and philospher who traveled extensively in Asia, including India and Tibet, and this book is his travel diary of this region. He contributed nearly two dozen articles to Paramahansa Yogananda’s magazines, East West and Inner Culture, including one titled “Christ Legends in Asia,” and when he died in 1947, an In Memoriam of Dr. Roerich was included in the March-April 1948 issue of East-West magazine.

During Roerich’s travels in India and Tibet, he came across documents about Issa (Jesus) and his time spent in the region during his “lost years” from ages 12 to 30. In Sri Yogananda’s book The Second Coming of Christ, he cites Roerich’s mention of this in both Heart of Asia and Altai-Himalaya. On page 82, he quotes from Altai-Himalaya, starting with these introductory words, referring to Nicolas Notovitch, who saw documents about Jesus’ presence in India: “Answering the critics who had claimed that Notovitch’s story was a fabrication, Roerich writes: ‘There are always those who love scornfully to deny when something difficult enters their consciousness…. [But] in what possible way could a recent forgery penetrate into the consciousness of the whole East?'” And further, Roerich notes: “The local people know nothing of any published book [i.e., Notovitch’s] but they know the legend and with deep reverence they speak of Issa.”

Interestingly, he is considered one of India’s nine national artists. Biologist Jagadis Chandra Bose had a painting by Roerich in the library of his home–a mountainous scene titled “Santana” (1928).