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Sacred Sites of the Dalai Lamas
Across Many Mountains: A Tibetan Familys Epic Journey from Oppression to Freedom
By: Yangzom Brauen
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"A powerful, emotional memoir and an extraordinary portrait of three generations of Tibetan women whose lives are forever changed when Chairman Mao's Red Army crushes Tibetan independence, sending a young mother and her six-year-old daughter on a treacherous journey across the snowy Himalayas toward freedom
""Kunsang thought she would never leave Tibet. One of the country's youngest Buddhist nuns, she grew up in a remote mountain village where, as a teenager, she entered the local nunnery. Though simple, Kunsang's life gave her all she needed: a oneness with nature and a sense of the spiritual in all things. She married a monk, had two children, and lived in peace and prayer. But not for long. There was a saying in Tibet: "When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth." The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 changed everything. When soldiers arrived at her mountain monastery, destroying everything in their path, Kunsang and her family fled across the Himalayas only to spend years in Indian refugee camps. She lost both her husband and her youngest child on that journey, but the future held an extraordinary turn of events that would forever change her life--the arrival in the refugee camps of a cultured young Swiss man long fascinated with Tibet. Martin Brauen will fall instantly in love with Kunsang's young daughter, Sonam, eventually winning her heart and hand, and taking mother and daughter with him to Switzerland, where Yangzom will be born.
Many stories lie hidden until the right person arrives to tell them. In rescuing the story of her now 90-year-old inspirational grandmother and her mother, Yangzom Brauen has given us a book full of love, courage, and triumph, as well as allowing us a rare and vivid glimpse of life in rural Tibet before the arrival of the Chinese. Most importantly, though, "ACROSS MANY MOUNTAINS" is a testament to three strong, determined women who are linked by an unbreakable family bond.
Bayonets to Lhasa
Bayonets to Lhasa: Francis Younghusband and the British Invasion of Tibet
By: Peter Fleming
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The British invasion of Tibet in 1904 is one of the strangest events in British imperial history. Planned by Lord Curzon as a strategic move in the Great Game, the incursion was in fact ill-conceived and inspired by only the weakest of motivations. Led by the soldier, explorer, and mystic Francis Younghusband, the missiondoomed from the very beginningbecame caught in political cross-fire and the distant and destructive machinations of China and England and ended in ignominy and disappointment. Peter Fleming's Bayonets to Lhasa is a gripping depiction of this unusual chain of events, its charismatic protagonists, and the repercussions that continue to be felt throughout the region.
Born in Lhasa
Born in Lhasa
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Namgyal Lhamo Taklha recounts her remarkable life in Born in Lhasa. She describes her childhood in a Tibet that no longer exists and chronicles her life and work on four continents. It is an engaging history of the Tibetan diaspora--dramatic and filled with anecdotes. Taklha's autobiography differs from those of other prominent Tibetans because she discusses the unexpected challenges of living in America and Europe.

Mrs. Taklha married the immediate elder brother of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. She is a member of the elected Parliament of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and serves as Minister of Health. She lives in Dharamsala, India.
British Empire and Tibet, 1900-1922
By: Wendy Palace
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Using official government sources, private papers and the diaries and memoirs of those involved, this book examines the impact of Younghunsband's invasion and its aftermath inside Tibet.
Clear Mirror
Clear Mirror: A Traditional Account of Tibet's Golden Age
By: Sonam Gyaltsen
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-Sakyapa Sonam Gyaltsen (1312-1375), born into the powerful Khon family that ruled much of Tibet, was teacher and mentor to many great masters of all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. He is still widely revered for his scholarship and sanctity. Lama Choedak Yuthok was born in a yak-hair tent in Central Tibet in 1954. After becoming a monk and studying for twelve years under the Most Venerable Chogay Trichen Rinpoche, he completed a three-year solitary retreat. Since 1982, he has served as interpreter for prominent teachers from all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
McComas Taylor's interest in Tibet was sparked by a chance meeting with Lama Choedak Yuthok and he subsequently immersed himself in all things Tibetan. He lives in Canberra Australia, in a house inspired by the :fortress-monasteries or the Himalayas, amid a jumble of children, books and treasures garnered from the natural world. A rich blend of history, legend, poetry, adventure and romance, The Clear Mirror is a treasure-trove of the traditional narrative and folk wisdom of Tibet. It presents in full the often-cited but elusive accounts of the origins of the Tibetan people, the coming of the Dharma to Tibet, and the appearance of Avalokiteshvara as the patron deity of Tibet. Compiled in 1368 from earlier histories as well as a rich oral tradition, the text treats the era during which Buddhism came to Tibet, the city of Lhasa was established as the capital, and the Jokhang and Ramoche temples were founded. The compiler, the renowned Sakya scholar Sonam Gyaltsen, narrates the traditional accounts in an engaging and highly readable style, in his words, 'to give pleasure to the faithful and to those who desire a history of the propagation of the Teachings'. Written to inform and entertain, the book has maintained a preeminent position in Tibetan society and is still popular today.
Cultural History of Tibet
By: David L. Snellgrove and Hugh Richardson
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This revised edition of the classic work on the rapidly vanishing civilization of Tibet traces the evolution of Tibetan culture from its origins to Tibet's fall to the Chinese Communists in 1959 and the subsequent relocation of Tibetan culture and many Tibetan people.
The authors illuminate the many faces of Tibetan culture, including the geography of Tibet, religion, artistic and literary development, and contemporary Tibetan politics. In discussing the history of this rich Central Asian civilization, they draw parallels with developments in historical Western Europe, as well as detail the assimilation of cultural influences from India and China. The text is illustrated with many rare photographs depicting the art, architecture, secular and sacred objects of Tibet.
Dalai Lamas of Lhasa and Their Relations with the Manchu Emperors of China 1644-1908
By: Rockhill
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This important work by W. W. Rockhills on the relations between the Dalai Lama's of Tibet and the Manchu Emperors of China, published in T'oung-Poo, Series III, Vol. 7, No. 4 and subsequently reprinted by Oriental Printing-office, Late E. J. Brill, Leyden in 1910, has remained inaccessible and out of print for a long time.
Dalai Lamas: The Institution and its History
Dalai Lamas: The Institution and its History
By: Ardy Verheagen
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From the fifteenth century on, the Dalai Lamas emerged as the pre-eminent spiritual and secular leaders of Tibet. In his foreword to this book Tenzin Gyatso the Fourteenth Dalai Lama states that “Buddhism, with its powerful central message of compassion . . . transformed Tibetans from the powerful warlike nation that dominated Central Asia in the seventh century to the more peaceful and religious people they are today.” With China’s continued occupation of Tibet threatening the “very existence of a distinct Tibetan identity and culture” the Dalai Lama feels it his “primary responsibility to take whatever steps I must to save my people and their unique heritage from total annihilation.”
History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People's Republic of China
By: John Powers
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Despite Chinese efforts to stop foreign countries from granting him visas, the Dalai Lama has become one of the most recognizable and best loved people on the planet, drawing enormous crowds wherever he goes. By contrast, China's charismatically-challenged leaders attract crowds of protestors waving Tibetan flags and shouting "Free Tibet!" whenever they visit foreign countries. By now most Westerners probably think they understand the political situation in Tibet. But, John Powers argues, most Western scholars of Tibet evince a bias in favor of one side or the other in this continuing struggle. Some of the most emotionally charged rhetoric, says Powers, is found in studies of Tibetan history. History is viewed by both sides as crucial to their claims, and both invest a great deal of energy in producing works that purport to tell the "truth" about Tibet's past. Powers shows that the two sides' views are mutually incompatible and that both sides sincerely believe what they say. Both are operating within a particular psychological context in which certain assumptions guide their inquiry and predetermine their conclusions. Both are so thoroughly convinced of the utter rightness of their paradigms that they cannot even imagine that someone might sincerely hold the opposing view, and so they accuse their opponents of deliberately lying and covering up the "facts" and the "truth." Both reflect the vastly different cultural myths of the societies that produced them. Chinese sources begin with the notion that China is at the center of the world and is the only civilized society, with a mandate to rule over all other countries. Tibetan records are thoroughly infused with Buddhist imagery and presuppositions, and the underlying narrative is the diffusion and glorification of religion. Powers examines works on Tibetan history by Tibetan and Chinese authors that have been produced in English for Western consumption. He finds some of their claims absurd, others highly implausible, some humorous in an unintended way. Both narratives are fraught with internal contradictions and inconsistencies.
History of Modern Tibet
By: Goldstein, Melvyn C.
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The Demise of the Lamaist State

The "Tibetan Question," the nature of Tibet's political status vis-?-vis China, has been the subject of often bitterly competing views while the facts of the issue have not been fully accessible to interested observers. While one faction has argued that Tibet was, in the main, historically independent until it was conquered by the Chinese Communists in 1951 and incorporated into the new Chinese state, the other faction views Tibet as a traditional part ofChina that split away at the instigation of the British after the fall of the Manchu Dynasty and was later dutifully reunited with "New China" in 1951. In contrast, this comprehensive study of modern Tibetan history presents a detailed, non-partisan account of the demise of the Lamaist state.
History of Modern Tibet, Volume 2: The Calm Before the Storm: 1951-1955
By: Goldstein, Melvyn C.
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It is not possible to fully understand contemporary politics between China and the Dalai Lama without understanding what happened–and why–during the 1950s. In a book that continues the story of Tibet's history that he began in his acclaimed A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State, Melvyn C. Goldstein critically revises our understanding of that key period in midcentury. This authoritative account utilizes new archival material, including never before seen documents, and extensive interviews with Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, and with Chinese officials. Goldstein furnishes fascinating and sometimes surprising portraits of these major players as he deftly unravels the fateful intertwining of Tibetan and Chinese politics against the backdrop of the Korean War, the tenuous Sino-Soviet alliance, and American cold war policy.
History of Tibet, 3 Vol. Set
History of Tibet, 3 Vol. Set
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These History of Tibet volumes have a format which has become an increasingly practical format for the dissemination of modern Tibetan studies - a cohesive collection of scholarly articles grouped around a particular theme.
While most of the material included here has been previously published, the nature of the academic process is such that many of the articles have appeared in obscure publications, have enjoyed only limited circulation or are otherwise difficult to locate.
They are presented here in conjunction with extracts from original documents and contributions.
India and Tibet
By: Younghusband
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This text provides a history of the relations that have existed between the countries of India and Tibet, from the time of Warren Hastings to 1910. Particular attention has been given to the mission to Lhasa of 1904. Divided into concise chapters, the text explores over 130 years of interaction between these two neighboring countries. It is an indispensible account of the early history of Tibet and its interaction with India.
Light of Kailash
Light of Kailash: A History of Zhang Zhung and Tibet, Volume One The Early Period
By: Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
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Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, former Professor of Tibetan and Mongolian Language and Literature at the University of Naples LOrientale, has dedicated his academic career to the study of Tibetan culture and has published a number of works, in particular, on its origin. In his findings, the cradle of Tibetan culture is to be looked for in the ancient realm of Zhang Zhung, with revered Mount Kailash as its center and heart, and in the Bn spiritual traditions which flourished within and spread from that kingdom. The Light of Kailash, through meticulous selection and a critical use and analysis of a vast array of literary and often unpublished sources, offers an open, daring, holistic, unbiased approach to the study of the cultural and spiritual heritage of Tibet, and to the understanding of the origin of this fascinating and endangered civilization.
Lotus and the Lion
Lotus and the Lion: Buddhism and the British Empire
By: J. Jeffrey Franklin
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Buddhism is indisputably gaining prominence in the West, as is evidenced by the growth of Buddhist practice within many traditions and keen interest in meditation and mindfulness. In The Lotus and the Lion, J. Jeffrey Franklin traces the historical and cultural origins of Western Buddhism, showing that the British Empire was a primary engine for curiosity about and then engagement with the Buddhisms that the British encountered in India and elsewhere in Asia. As a result, Victorian and Edwardian England witnessed the emergence of comparative religious scholarship with a focus on Buddhism, the appearance of Buddhist characters and concepts in literary works, the publication of hundreds of articles on Buddhism in popular and intellectual periodicals, and the dawning of syncretic religions that incorporated elements derived from Buddhism.

In this fascinating book, Franklin analyzes responses to and constructions of Buddhism by popular novelists and poets, early scholars of religion, inventors of new religions, social theorists and philosophers, and a host of social and religious commentators. Examining the work of figures ranging from Rudyard Kipling and D. H. Lawrence to H. P. Blavatsky, Thomas Henry Huxley, and F. Max Müller, Franklin provides insight into cultural upheavals that continue to reverberate into our own time. Those include the violent intermixing of cultures brought about by imperialism and colonial occupation, the trauma and self-reflection that occur when a Christian culture comes face-to-face with another religion, and the debate between spiritualism and materialism. The Lotus and the Lion demonstrates that the nineteenth-century encounter with Buddhism subtly but profoundly changed Western civilization forever.
Old Tibetan Annals: An Annotated Translation of Tibet's First History
Old Tibetan Annals: An Annotated Translation of Tibet's First History
By: Brandon Dotson
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The Old Tibetan Annals contain Tibet´s oldest extant history. Primarily a bureaucratic register of events, it is the single most reliable source for the history of the first half of the Tibetan Empire (c. 600-850 CE). This record was maintained more or less contemporaneously with the events it describes, with entries added at the end of each year from 650 to 764. In each yearly entry, the Old Tibetan Annals record information such as the summer and winter residences of the Tibetan emperor, where the summer and winter political councils were convened, who convened them, and what measures were taken. Visits from foreign dignitaries, military engagements, dynastic marriages, the birth of a future sovereign, deaths of important figures, and the performance of funeral rites for the royal family are also recorded. This volume offers an annotated translation of the Old Tibetan Annals along with a transliteration of the Tibetan text and photographic reproductions of the original Dunhuang documents. A long introduction serves to place the Old Tibetan Annals within its cultural and historical context by exploring the history of the Tibetan Empire, as well as its political geography and administrative practices. A set of appendices follows the translation, of which an index of the place names mentioned in the Annals is especially useful. The indices and a glossary render the Annals easily accessible, and the photographic reproductions give scholars access to the original text.
Power, Politics, and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century
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 This volume focuses upon the relationships between the past and the present evoked in Tibetan historiography, ritual literature, and Buddhist esoteric writings. It offers diverse perspectives on a critical period in Tibet’s history when Tibetans found themselves caught up in the tides of political turmoil and forced into the center of a much larger Central Eurasian struggle for power and territorial control between the Manchu rulers of the Qing empire and the Mongols of the north. The volume highlights the various ways Tibetan historians, biographers, and Buddhist scholars during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries succeeded in the task of reinventing and reinforcing their respective traditions.
Pioneering on Tibet
Primary Sources, Historical Collections: Pioneering on Tibet: A Personal Record of Life and Experience in Mission Fields
By: Albert Leroy Shelton
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This book, from the series Primary Sources: Historical Books of the World (Asia and Far East Collection), represents an important historical artifact on Asian history and culture. Its contents come from the legions of academic literature and research on the subject produced over the last several hundred years. Covered within is a discussion drawn from many areas of study and research on the subject. From analyses of the varied geography that encompasses the Asian continent to significant time periods spanning centuries, the book was made in an effort to preserve the work of previous generations. 214 Pages.
Song of the Queen of Spring: A History of Tibet
Song of the Queen of Spring: A History of Tibet
By: Nag-dBan Blo-bZan rGya-mTSHo, Fifth Dalai Lama
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Through a Land of Extremes: The Littledales of Central Asia
Through a Land of Extremes: The Littledales of Central Asia
By: Elizabeth and Nicholas Clinch
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For thirty years, St. George Littledale and his wife Teresa mounted expeditions in North America and Asia. Through a Land of Extremes gives a taste for a bygone time of travel into uncharted, unknown territory, when adventurers lived by a combination of wit, charm, and luck. Of independent means, the Littledales began in the American Rockies, Yellowstone, and Alaska. These trips were followed by expeditions in the late 1880s in the Caucasus, the Pamirs, Russian Central Asia, and Mongolia.

Their greatest exploit was a 14-month journey to Tibet in 1895. They were attempting to reach the Forbidden City of Lhasa, the great unmet goal of Central Asian explorers. In order to minimize their chances of being discovered until they neared their goal, St. George selected a route across the desolate, uninhabited Tibetan Plateau. At a 19,000-foot pass, they were finally blocked by 150 armed Tibetans. The Tibetans allowed them to continue over the pass to a suitable stopping place. The Littledales had come within 49 miles of Lhasa, closer than any other foreigners since 1846.
 

Tibet and China in the Twenty-First Century, Non - violence Versus State Power
By: John Heath
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John Heath's overview lends perspective to this conflict through an impartial examination of the situation as it stands, as well as to how it has arrived at the present state of affairs. Heath enquires into the origin of Mao Zedong's influences, rise to power and eventual decision to invade Tibet and examines Chinese policy towards the country from Mao's time right up to the recent change of administration headed by Hu Jintao. Simultaneously, Heath reports on the various changes Tibetans have faced in modern times, from eroding cultural traditions and ecology to economic development. The second part of the book addresses the contentious human-rights aspect to China's actions in Tibet, and explores the very real, and realistic, question of how to actually negotiate with China.
Tibet: A History
Tibet: A History
By: Sam Van Schaik
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Situated north of the Himalayas, Tibet is famous for its unique culture and its controversial assimilation into modern China. Yet Tibet in the twenty-first century can only be properly understood in the context of its extraordinary history.

Sam van Schaik brings the history of Tibet to life by telling the stories of the people involved, from the glory days of the Tibetan empire in the seventh century through to the present day. He explores the emergence of Tibetan Buddhism and the rise of the Dalai Lamas, Tibet's entanglement in the "Great Game" in the early twentieth century, its submission to Chinese Communist rule in the 1950s, and the troubled times of recent decades.

Tibet sheds light on the country's complex relationship with China and explains often-misunderstood aspects of its culture, such as reborn lamas, monasteries and hermits, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the role of the Dalai Lama. Van Schaik works through the layers of history and myth to create a compelling narrative, one that offers readers a greater understanding of this important and controversial corner of the world.
Tibetan Empire in Central Asia: A History of the Struggle for Great Power among Tibetans, Turks, Arabs, and Chinese during the Early Middle Ages
By: Christopher I. Beckwith
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This richly detailed narrative history of the Tibetan Empire in Central Asia from about A.D. 600 to 866 depicts the struggles of the great Tibetan, Turkic, Arab, and Chinese powers for dominance over the Silk Road lands that connected Europe and East Asia. Challenging the commonly held belief that Eas and West were largely isolated from each other until the discovery of sea routes to India and China, the book  shows the importance of overland contacts between East and West in the Early Middle Ages and elucidates Tibet's role in the conflict over Central Asia.
Tibetan History and Language
By: Ernst Steinkellner
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Studies dedicated to Uray Geza on his seventieth birthday.



Tibetan History and Language, Ernst Steinkellner, Arbeitskreis fur Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Paperback, 536 pp., $72.
Travels of a Consular Officer in Eastern Tibet
Travels of a Consular Officer in Eastern Tibet: Together with a History of the Relations Between China, Tibet and India
By: Eric Teichman
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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. 248 Pages.
Water Horse and Other Years: History of 17th and 18th Century Tibet
By: Dhondup
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The Water-Horse and Other Years is a history of Tibet during the 17th and 18th centuries, roughly covering the period from the First to the Seventh Dalai Lamas. It attempts to capture the sound and fury of the sectarian and regional conflicts and turmoil that dominated the larger part of some of the most violent and power-hungry chapters in Tibetan history, when diverse personalities such as Qosot Gushri Khan, Desi Sonam Chophel, Karma Tenkyong Wangpo, Desi Sangay Gyatso, Qosot Lhazang Khan, Kanchenay Sonam Gyalpo, Miwang Pholanay Sonam Topgyal, Gyurmed Namgyal, and many others roamed across the Tibetan landscape in search of personal, sectarian, or regional victory and domination. And between the lines of these 'violent and frightening chapters run the lives the' Dalai Lamas and the Panchen Lamas, constantly providing spiritual solace and strength to the suffering Tibetan masses crushed under ceaseless power struggles between the Tibetan regents, Mongol chiefs, and Manchu emperors. Above all, The Water-Horse and Other fears traces the political rise of Ganden Phodrang as personified in the person and institution of the Dalai Lamas, who have kept Tibet alive throughout the centuries.
   
 
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