The Primary Books Written About Hunza

John Clark (1909 - 1994) earned his doctorate in geology at Princeton University in 1935. As an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Clark explored nine thousand miles of roads and trails in Kansu and Sinkiang, China. Clark decided to help the people of Hunza because of his wide geological experience and some medical expertise. He went to Hunza in 1950 and 1951 and wrote the book, Hunza - Lost Kingdom of the Himalayas, in 1957. University in 1935. He traveled by horseback over the rugged and dangerous trail for 70 miles from Gilgit and found the people to be strong, intelligent and proud of their independence. In his 20 month stay, he got to know the Hunza people on a personal level, and with his 20 years experience in first aid as a field geologist, he ran a free dispensary where he treated 5,684 patients with sulphas, penicillin, paludrines, atabrine, undecylenic acid and other drugs. His reference medical books were Cutting's Manual of Therapeutics, the Merck Manual, Gardiner's Handbook of Skin Diseases and Medical Council practice papers. See page 75 in the 1957 first edition of the book. The pages in the pdf file below do not match the pages in the book.

Clark traveled to investigate the geology of the entire region searching for natural resources such as minerals or metals. He brought in new vegetable seeds and taught basic carpentry and crafts to a school of boys. Clark's book is exciting reading and describes the Hunza people in great detail. It is an excellent resource.

This picture shows the Hunza River in winter near Aliabad with Mountain Rakaposhi in the background. The stream and canyon entering the valley from the left is Hasanabad Nullah. This is one of the many ravines that Clark explored. The valley does not get much snow in winter even though temperature falls below zero degrees Fahrenheit (-10 C). Click on the picture to see an enlargement.

On his first trip through Hunza Clark reported he acquired almost all of the same misconceptions as others: "the healthy Hunza, the Democratic Court and the land where there are no poor." He soon found the actual situation to be much different.

Dr. Allen E. Banik and Renee Taylor wrote the book, Hunza Land, in 1960. They describe Hunza on the front inside of the dust jacket. "They have no money, no poverty, no disease, no police and no jails." All of these claims are false. Their money was the Pakistan rupee as they were a part of Pakistan. They had poverty. Those who could not grow their own food simply starved to death. Family groups were staunhly independent and did not help others as Dr. Banik claims. They had considerable disease and often flooded into John Clark's dispensary for treatment. They had a ruling organization in each village with men serving in security positions. The Mir had armed body guards that kept out of sight of the visitors. They had a penal colony at Shimshal Valley in the north end of the valley where inmates attended to flocks of sheep owned by the Mir. It was a dreadful sentence to be banished to Shimshal. The winters were icy cold and the high winds blew continuously. The claims in this book about the diet, health, longevity, and honesty of the Hunza people are false.

Renee Taylor, a lecturer, linguist and world traveler, wrote the book, Hunza Health Secrets For Long Life and Happiness, in 1964. She traveled to Hunza during the summer of 1960 over a Jeep road that had just been built a few years previously. Taylor lived a couple of months as a guest of the Mir at his palace in the Hunza capital of Baltit. She traveled very little and did not get the opportunity to develop any close personal relationships with the common Hunzakut. Taylor heard only filtered information presented by the Mir, his staff and selected individuals. Unfortunately Taylor did not learn the truth while in Hunza. She never ventured out alone to live with the people and learn the truth behind this facade. Her movements were strictly controlled by the Mir, and she was presented an orchestrated view of Hunza that the Mir wanted her to pass on to the world.

Scarcely two consecutive sentences in Taylor's book can be read without finding errors, distortions and blatant untruth. The Hunza people certainly did a good job of deceiving her. Renee Taylor appears to have ventured to Hunza with an agenda to proclaim the Hunzakuts to be the most healthy and long-lived people on the earth while subsisting on a low-fat, mostly vegetarian diet. These claims are false.