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5/9/07 Update
Daniel is free! After eight gruelling months in an Indian prison, Daniel boarded a plane for London. There is still no word on the location of his two (possibly three) horses, but members of The Long Rider's Guild are currently searching for them with the hope of regaining custody for Daniel.
3/24/07 Update
Judge's decision handed down after March 20th appeal: After spending the last 6 months in jail, Daniel will be imprisoned for yet another two months. No further word on the location and health of his horses, but several Long Riders Guild members are working to find and rescue the animals.
PILGRIMAGE TO PRISON
 Daniel Robinson, 38 years old, left England for China over a year ago. Since then he has prepared for and
undertaken a magnificent and sacred journey, the like of which few men have even dreamed of in a lifetime, and
fewer still attempted. His pilgrimage has taken him, firstly in the company of a group of Tibetans, along the ancient
Tea Caravan Trail from China to the Holy city of Lhasa in Tibet. From there he continued alone, on foot, with only
the company of his two horses, down through the mighty Himalayas, towards the source of the Holy river Ganga.
On this epic trek he covered over over 1,800 miles.
But on such daring journey, things can not always go to plan. Delayed, because one of his horses was ill and one
exhausted and in foal, he lingered a month in the high mountains. With the onset of winter, as icy winds and snow
on the high slopes of the Himalaya made the landscape uninhabitable, he was forced to leave quickly and move
downwards. This is where his pilgrimage went horribly wrong. Daniel did not have an entry visa for India and no
way of applying for one either, from the slopes of the mountains. Instead of abandoning his horses, his pilgrimage or
both, he decided to move down the mountains and over the border into India. Indeed, as his journey progressed and
conditions became increasingly difficult, he ran out of food for himself and his horses in the vast empty borderlands,
and was eventually glad to hand himself over, exhausted and starving, to the military authorities in the second
encampment he encountered, just above Josimoth. That was at the end of October.
At the encampment he was arrested and his horses taken into military custody. He was transported to Pursari Jail,
outside Gopeshwar, where his pilgrimage was brought to an abrupt end. There he sat for over two months, enduring
intensive interrogation from four different security services, treated like a common criminal while he awaited the
long and arduous process of his case being brought to trial. His health was, and is, broken. He suffered a bout of
pneumonia and a kidney infection and, since he is also asthmatic, prison conditions are inevitably and inexorably
effecting his health. He shares a cell with over twenty other prisoners, most of whom smoke, and has been refused
alternative prison accommodation, even though it has been requested on by the British High Commission on
humanitarian grounds.
The magistrate of Gopeshwar did not allow Daniel Robinson to have a lawyer until his daughter (19 years) visited
him with a family friend [the author] on 15th December, nearly 60 days after his arrest. His widowed mother and his
friends in England have had no means by which to contact him, or indeed, to discover how his case is proceeding.
They have been frantic with worry. In prison he was found to be emaciated, subsisting a near- starvation diet, and
constantly reliant on the daily use of an inhaler just to breathe, giving new grounds for concern. The latest news is
that he has been sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for entering India without a visa. His daughter, Justina, his
mother and friends are distraught.
Daniel has indeed been both naïve and foolish. By entering Indian territory, over a disputed border, and without an
entry visa, he has undoubtedly committed a crime. Yet there are thousands of people living quiet lives in both India
and England who also possess no valid entrance visa, or visa of residency. Daniel, in contrast to many, gave himself
up to the Indian authorities and entered India with no criminal or evil intent. He has never previously committed a
crime. He is not an ordinary soul: he has been foolish, but always honest. He has undertaken a magnificent and epic
journey, over some of the hardest terrain known to man. It seems a crime to those who have witnessed his integrity
that he must pay such a heavy price for his foolishness: a year of his life, and the inevitable break down of his
health. Who knows what may befall him in jail, if all appeals fail and he is indeed kept for 12 long months?
 India is a country with a magnificent spiritual tradition of pilgrimage, based on an enduring respect for faith and
belief that appears to many in the Western world to override the empty materialism that now runs rampant across the
globe. Daniel should not stand outside the law, of India or of Britain, but in sentencing him so harshly is the Indian
legal system paying due respect to its own lineage of spiritual leaders, such as the Buddha Himself? Compassion,
love and peace are the earmarks of true justice in any democratic country. Justice must be even-handed and embrace
spiritual as well as material concerns. Daniel Robinson made his journey in service to a common spiritual humanity
that goes beyond the bounds of borders and of politics and terror. Readers who hear this news and hold spiritual
values dear, are gratefully urged to assist Daniel by signing an online petition against his sentence<.
Both of Dan's horses are 8 years old. Their names are Humay (black colour) and Mayling (red colour). He does not know the breed. Dan travelled from Dequin in Yunan to Lhasa with a group of people, all with horses, that originated from Dequin, China. His horse became frail, so he bought two horses from someone in this group and left his original horse with them in Lhasa - Daniel, Humay and Mayling then traveled on alone.
Dan reckons he traveled between 1800 - 2400 miles. He did not ride his horses during his trip from Lhasa. He walked the whole way on foot, from Lhasa down the steep Himalayan passes, as he discovered one of his horses was in foal and the other became sick. He led them until they stopped for a month on the high slopes, so they could all recover and he could ride again.
During a one month monsoon in July, Dan and his horses nearly lost their lives in a big river in Tibet (he does not know the name). Alone at this stage of his journey, he spent four days trying to get around the river. In the end he decided to cross the river. The torrent was very fast. By the time he arrived to the bank on other side he had been pushed 200 feet downstream.
Often he had very little food for himself or his horses. At some points they had no water for 2 days at a stretch while walking 18 - 20 miles per day.
One horse nearly died coming across the Himalayas (on the border with India and Tibet) due to exposure, dehyhdration and lack of food. The temperatures reached well below 0° Farenheit , and was even colder with the wind chill factor.
One horse became lame. It had a 6-inch cut on the inside of its hind leg from a shoeing accident. The wound was so bad he could see the horse's tendons and muscles.
The other horse had an infection caused by its load rubbing on one side so that half of one side of the horse was full of puss. Dan had to stop for one month in Mount Khailash (West Tibet) so it could recover. When Dan last saw his horses, the wound mentioned above was still open (about one inch long) although the infection had cleared.
The horses were taken over by the army somewhere between Manor (last army outpost) and Milari post. Now Dan thinks they are with the Indian Tibet Border Police in Joshimath.
The horses were seized when Dan arrived at the army camp in Manor. They said they had received correspondence from head quarters telling them to detain the horses.
Dan was not given any information by the local authorities. However, at the court hearing he was told that they were brought in illegally but they were not interested in this matter. They told him that once he had been released he would have to ask the government of India if he wanted to get them back.
Dan has with him in his current prison a listed record of all his possesions including his horses. This was given to him by the Joshimath police. They said they would look after his horses until his release.
They said the horses would only be freed when Dan was released. Dan is very worried. He believes they are locked up all day as this seems to be standard practice. His black horse suffers from claustraphobia and rocks back and forth an its front hooves all day long if it's in a confined space. He is scared that this will cause a serious mental disorder or even death.
Learn more about Daniel and his plight:
We will post blog updates as more information is available.
Visit the Free Dan website for more news and information.
Sign the petition to free Daniel - it only takes a moment, and one more name may be all that is needed.
Read "The Price of a Pilgrimmage" by CuChullaine O'Reilly, founder of the Long Rider's Guild.
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