Pemako, the old name of the Medog region in Tibet, is a hidden lotus realm described in Tibetan Buddhist scriptures as nearly inaccessible, its coordinates strictly guarded. In 1924, the plant hunter Frank Kingdon-Ward entered the Yarlung Tsangpo Gorge. Beyond collecting seeds from the Himalayan region, another goal of his was to locate the waterfall rumored to mark the entrance to Pemako. This tropical expedition ended in failure—the ever-present roar of waterfalls disoriented Kingdom-Ward and his team, causing them to lose all sense of location.

Maps served as crucial eyes during the colonial era. The act of assigning coordinates to unknown lands marked the starting point for empires to imagine geographies, delineate margins, and seize dreams. In fact, modern society has grown so accustomed to measuring distances and planning routes from the omniscient perspective of maps that we often overlook the political frameworks embedded within them. When this way of navigating fails, how does one proceed?