Circumambulating Mount Tamalpais
A Ritual Walk

Author: Matthew Davis & Michael Farrell Scott. Gary Snyder, foreword

Publisher/Date: Shoemaker & Hoard 2006

ISBN: 9781593761271

Format/Condition: New softcover is in fine condition, 145 pages, endnotes, measures 7 x 10 ½ inches, profusely illustrated with black and white photos.

Description: In 1965 Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen gathered at the base of Mt. Tamalpais, a small but picturesque mountain in Marin County at the northwest side of the San Francisco Bay. Inspired by Tibetan and Indian practices of walking clockwise—"the way of the sun"—around a venerated object, they "opened the mountain" by completing the first circumambulation. They did it again two years later, a month after the "Human Be-In" event in Golden Gate Park, and with greater company as they invited the public to join them. The practice has continued almost uninterrupted for 40 years, organized largely by Matthew Davis since 1971, and way stations for ceremonial chanting and prayer have been established along the 15-mile route. This book serenely documents this ritual with chants and poems, maps and drawings, and 80 black and white photographs.