RPCV Ken Winkler–The Winter Line: A Memoir and Observation of Asia

The Winter Line: A Memoir and Observation of Asia
by Ken Winkler (India 1964-66)
Author House
304 pages
March 2010
$4.99 (Kindle); $15.49 (Paperback);

Imagine a book born from the tendrils of a cloudy monsoon afternoon on a sheer drop overlooking the northern plains of India. Ken Winkler watched the “winter line” develop below him from the Kumaon Himalaya and knew that the book of his life was presenting
itself. The author has spent over 40 years writing and studying about, traveling to or working in Asia, or listening to teachers, lamas, soldiers and travelers present their versions of what they saw. Not everything was as it appeared, and many of his experiences
reflected a direct spiritual lesson. All of this started on a bird farm in San Diego—or was it from the stories of a smooth-talking Irishman, or an Oxford Don, or a collection of Buddhist masters passing through? The Winter Line presents a series of essays that cover the
author’s travels from the Himalayas to Southeast Asia. Long an observer of and participant in the region’s development, Winkler has blended personal views with commentaries by social activists, Buddhist monks, and mountain climbers on the sometimes radical changes facing areas of cultural significance and great beauty.

Ken Winkler (India 1964-66)

Ken Winkler has spent five years teaching in Thailand (Bangkok & Chiang Mai) and served a year as a resort manager in the far north (Chiang Rai). Another two years were devoted to being a Peace Corps volunteer in India, and a single year in the Czech Republic. He is the author of: An Unfinished Business, The Ladakh Papers, The Inner Line, Never Recovered, The Monk’s Hour, Pilgrim of the Clear Light: The Biography of Dr. Walter Evans-Wentz, A Thousand Journeys: A Biography of Lama Anagarika Govinda, and The Furies Arise: A Novel of the Indian Mutiny. A student of several Thai and Tibetan Buddhist masters, Ken has also served as a refugee social worker for the Tolstoy Foundation and the International Rescue Committee. In addition to working with the American Language Center at UCLA, he has also taught community college English in the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, Oregon and with Santa Monica College in Los Angeles, California.