2012 Individual Artist Grant
Back Over the Mountains
Hay House India, 2015
Back Over the Mountains is the true story of unexpected friendship between a Buddhist monk seeking to establish himself far from his homeland, and a writer clinging to the remnants of fading borderland culture.
When she unexpectedly meets exiled Tibetan Buddhist monk Kushok Lobsang Dhamchoe, she begins a journey that not only leads her to remote corners of the Himalayas, but into the realm of memory, loss, and acceptance.
From the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet to the secret valley of Tsum, Nepal, Marshall first follows in the footsteps of her teacher before finding the courage to seek out her own spiritual path. While trying to mend Kushok’s broken past, she discovers she’s healing her own, too.
Jane Marshall has created a beautiful narrative with deep philosophical insights hidden in every nook and corner of every sentence. Mountain pebbles, people, wind, and longing are all carefully knitted together to form an inspirational memoir of her travels to Nepal in search for inner peace. This book comes across as transparent, emotional, and enlightening. It is bound to resonate and act as a brightly lit pathway for the ever-searching, travelling soul.
“Back Over the Mountains by Jane Marshall was one of my favorite books from 2015. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about traveling to Nepal and India and heeding a call to leave my cozy apartment and engage in an unknown adventure. Jane felt a similar pull and not only did she go into the unknown, she came back and wrote a seriously engaging book about the journey. Jane embodies a kind of fearlessness in her travels and in her writing that I hope to emulate this year and in years to come. And her book is a really great read for anyone trying to juggle life responsibilities and Dharma practice and/or anyone who wants to do some serious travel in the Himalayas. Thanks, Jane, for inspiration and for taking me along to Tsum and beyond.”