Katmandu by Thomas Bell
What a striking cover. The book itself, though, tends to be a dense collation of facts: historical, political, economical.
If the reader plods on, as did this reader, the real treasure appears in the last one-third of the tome. Bell peels back the covers shrouding Operation Mustang, a clandestine intelligence op in which MI6 plays an uncomfortably large part.
The picture of Nepal Bell draws is not a happy one but then some places have their mandalas cast well before they come into being. And then, they must live out their fate.