Abstract
<jats:p>After fourteen years of wandering across Asia, Alexandra David-Neel became the first Western woman to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa in 1924. To get there, the explorer passed herself off as an old Tibetan beggar, a metamorphosis that was not only physical but also spiritual, marking her identity and enabling her to transcend cultural boundaries. The body certainly affects the mind by transforming its identity, but the mind also affects the body. The Buddhist explorer's walk was close to a physical feat, as her body was constantly tested by hunger and cold. The mind can also plunge the body into a state of half-dream, leading the explorer to have hallucination and mystical apparition. Therefore, the experience of the environment takes on a magical dimension that can be apprehended through the motif of walking, whose writing is marked by hesitation and exaggeration. This paper will consider Alexandra David-Neel's walk as an artistic and spiritual performance through an itinerary influenced by divine apparitions and natural events interpreted as prodigies.</jats:p>