Land Without Laughter

"In the veins of the men of Tataristan courses the blood of Mongol, Hun, Macedonian and Chinesethe fanaticism of Saladins and Tamerlanes Islam, and a rich heritage of Chinese wile."This is the land and these are the countrymen of Ahmad Kamals ancestors. A Muslim of Tartar stock, Mr. Kamal was born in America. His great-grandfather fought against the Russians in Central Asia. More than a century later, his American descendant returned to renew the battle in the 1930s. Kamal entered Turkestan through India and Tibet, crossing in mid-winter the most formidable frontier in the world, the Himalayan passes. The account of this journey under constant threat of extinction from falling avalanches of snow begins a series of almost incredibly hazardous adventures, told with an authenticity that unrolls the whole richly colored tapestry of a strange, feudal, and barbaric land. AuthorBio: Ahmad Kamal was born on a Colorado Indian reservation in 1914 of Turco-Tatar parents who were forced into exile by the Tsar for participation in the 1905 Revolution. Kamal's genetic makeup imprinted all his endeavors be they as deep sea diver, combat pilot, horseman, warrior, and as exponent of national self-determination. He commanded the Basmachi Rebellion in Turkistan in the 1920's and 1930's, supported the independence of Indonesia and Algeria, and was commanding General of the Muslim liberation forces of the Union of Burma into the 1980's. Though he devoted his entire life to the independence of his fatherland from the Russian and Chinese yokes, he died a month short of the collapse of the USSR. Japan's press, Asahi Shimbun marked his exsistence stating: "Ahmad Kamal lived like a Samuraiand died like a Samurai."