This book is essentially the life story of a Tibetan highwayman around the beginning of this century, which he told to Alexandra David-Neel, prompted by the peculiar circumstances of their meeting. This is ‘a true story which has been lived’, her straightforward reportage is both factual and fantastic and synonymous with the mysteries of Tibetan magic. Tibetan Tale of Love and Magic is essentially the life story of a Tibetan highwayman around the beginning of this century, which he told to Alexandra David-Neel, prompted by the peculiar circumstances of their meeting. Garab, the hero, was not only an almost archetypal highwayman, but was involved in a very extraordinary and passionate love affair with a beautiful young woman whom he believed to be an incarnate demon. Their adventures took them right across Tibet through the wildest and most inaccessible regions and brought them into contact with some terrible but fascinating Tibetan magicians, who were trying to achieve immortality by extracting the vital energy of others by sacrificing their victims in the process. Their extraordinary secret practices were unknown not only in Europe but also to most initiates in the East. Although written in novel form, as the author explains in her preface, this is ‘a true story which has been lived’, her straightforward reportage is both factual and fantastic and synonymous with the mysteries of Tibetan magic.