To coincide with the celebrations surrounding the 70th birthday of the Dalai Lama and the exhibition to be held at the Ethnographic Museum of Zurich University (Volkerkundemuseum der Universitat Zurich) in July, Serindia will be publishing a history of all the Dalai Lamas, each portrayed in text and illustrations. Essays contributed by sixteen authors illuminate the institutions of reincarnation and enthronement of the Dalai Lamas, interregna, Panchen Lamas, Western views of the Dalai Lamas, and relations between the Dalai Lamas and the Chinese.

The lives and work of the Dalai Lamas are illustrated with numerous and largely unpublished sources, including thangkas, statues of individual Dalai Lamas, paintings of the Potala, gifts of various Dalai Lamas to high dignitaries, such as Chinese emperors and Russian tsars, and photographs of the 13th and 14th Dalai Lamas from Tibetan, British, and Indian archives.


Dalai Lamas: A Visual History, Martin Brauen, Serindia, Hardcover, 2005, 304 pages and 364 color and b/w illustrations., $85.00