Frederique Darragon - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Frederique Darragon is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

explorer known for her documentary film The Secret Towers
Himalayan Towers
The Himalayan Towers also called Stone star-shaped towers, are a series of stone towers located mostly in Kham, an ancient province of Tibet, in Sichuan and in Tibet. The towers are located in regions of Changthang, Gyalrong, Miniak and Kongpo. The towers can be found both in cities and in...

of the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

, which chronicled her expedition to the mystifying stone towers of Sichuan

Sichuan

' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...

and Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

. She wrote a book also titled The Secret Towers of the Himalayas. She is founder and president of the Unicorn Foundation, where profits from the film were contributed. She is the co-founder of the Sichuan University

Sichuan University

Sichuan University is one of the oldest national universities in China. It is ranked No. 8 among the Chinese universities according to the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities....

Unicorn Heritage Institute.

She made several important discoveries. By carbon-dating bits of wood from the internal structure of the towers, she confirmed that they were built 500 to 1,800 years ago. The fact that many of the towers have survived hundreds of earthquakes and tremors over the years, is probably due to their star-shaped design as well as to their construction method which intersperses masonry with wood planks or beams – an anti-seismic technique specific to this part of China and still employed in the region today. Combined with the vast numbers and size of the towers, this is evidence that a sophisticated civilization once existed in these remote areas.

Darragon believes these areas are now sure to become a major tourist attraction and has lobbied for the towers to be listed as a UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

for their protection and preservation. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3474951/

Work

The Secret towers of the Himalayas
Himalayan Towers
The Himalayan Towers also called Stone star-shaped towers, are a series of stone towers located mostly in Kham, an ancient province of Tibet, in Sichuan and in Tibet. The towers are located in regions of Changthang, Gyalrong, Miniak and Kongpo. The towers can be found both in cities and in...

. 2003 Documentary
The Secret towers of the Himalayas
Himalayan Towers
The Himalayan Towers also called Stone star-shaped towers, are a series of stone towers located mostly in Kham, an ancient province of Tibet, in Sichuan and in Tibet. The towers are located in regions of Changthang, Gyalrong, Miniak and Kongpo. The towers can be found both in cities and in...

. 2005 English/Chinese book published in China ISBN 7-80709-043-X/K2

External links

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