[4] At the age of 18, Laird left the United States and travelled, overland, alone, from Europe to Nepal, passing through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.

[5] After travelling through revolution-ridden Iran, he settled full-time in Kathmandu, where he worked as a photographer, Himalayan guide, and journalist.

[6] He photographed the 1990 People's Movement for Stern, Asiaweek, and others, and a year later received the first ever one-year residence permit for Mustang.

He unearthed thousands of pages of documents from the National Archives in Washington DC, and conducted one hundred hours of interviews with more than two dozen primary sources ranging from CIA members to the Dalai Lama.

"[11] Laird has also worked on film projects Baraka (1990) and The Gurkhas (1998) in various roles, and was also Oliver Stone’s guide in Tibet in 1996.