History, Activism & Politics
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THE CLEAR MIRROR: A Traditional Account of Tibet's Golden Age by Sakyapa Sonam Gyaltsen, translated by McComas Taylor and Lama Choedak Yuthok 315 pp., 16 line drawings, 2 maps. #CLMI - regular price $ 16.95 Our Price $8.47 Published by Snow Lion A rich blend of history, legend, poetry, adventure and romance, The Clear Mirror is a treasure-trove of traditional Tibetan narrative and folk wisdom. 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. The text treats the era during which Buddhism came to Tibet, Lhasa became the capital, and the Jokhang and Ramoche temples were founded. Written to inform and entertain, the book has a pre-eminent position in Tibetan society and is popular today. 1559390484 | |
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THE GOLDEN YOKE: The Legal Cosmology of Buddhist Tibet by Rebecca Redwood French 424 pp., 7" x 10", 81 b&w illustrations. #GOYOK - regular price $ 21.95 Our Price $10.97 Published by Snow Lion "To read the Golden Yoke is to walk into the daily life of Tibet last century and centuries before, go with a monk official to consult a tome of land titles kept in a monastic cellar, and then to the fields to find buried boundary markers of white and black stones, in order to settle a dispute among neighbors. It is to marvel at the sophistication of an ancient, literate, humanely organized society, that tries to maintain Buddhist ethical principles in its institutions, laws, and practices. More ... | |
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IN THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY: The Biography of Dasang Damdul Tsarong, Commander General of Tibet by D. N. Tsarong 164 pp., 43 b&w photos. #SEHICO - regular price $ 14.95 Our Price $7.47 Published by Snow Lion "This is possibly one of the best books among the host of Tibetan memoirs now available...for introducing students and general readers to modern Tibetan history before the cultural revolution"--The Journal of Asian Studies More ... | |
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KING OF THE EMPTY PLAIN: The Tibetan Iron Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo by Cyrus Stearns, a Tsadra Foundation Series book Cloth. 684 pp. #TAGYKI - regular price $ 49.95 Our Price $39.96 Published by Snow Lion The legendary Buddhist master Tangtong Gyalpo (1361?-1485), "King of the Empty Plain," is familiar to every Tibetan, yet nearly unknown in the rest of the world. His incredible lifespan, profound teachings, unprecedented engineering feats, eccentric deeds, and creation of Tibetan opera have earned this fascinating figure a unique status in Tibetan culture. Believed to be the great Indian master Padmasambhava appearing again in the world to benefit living beings, Tangtong Gyalpo discovered techniques for achieving longevity that are still held in highest esteem and frequently taught six hundred years later. His construction of fifty-eight iron suspension bridges, sixty wooden bridges, 118 ferries, 111 stupa monuments, and countless temples and monasteries in Tibet and Bhutan remains an awe-inspiring accomplishment. More ... | |
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LABRANG: A Tibetan Buddhist Monastery at the Crossroads of Four Civilizations by Paul Kocot Nietupski, photos from the Griebenow Archives, 1921-1949 160 pp., 9" x 8" high, 36 color and 100 b&w photos, illustrations. #LA - regular price $ 24.95 Our Price $12.47 Published by Snow Lion Labrang Monastery, located in northeast Tibet at the strategic intersection of four major Asian civilizations--Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese, and Muslim--was one of the largest Buddhist monastic universities. In the early twentieth century, it housed several thousand monks. Labrang was also a gathering point for numerous annual religious festivals, supported an active regional marketplace where Chinese artisans rubbed shoulders with Hui merchants and nomadic Tibetan highlanders, and was the seat of a Tibetan power base that strove to maintain regional autonomy through the shifting alliances and bloody conflicts that took place between 1700 and 1950. More ... | |
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MUSIC IN THE SKY: The Life, Art and Teachings of the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje by Michele Martin. 400 pp., 59 color photos, 2 maps, drawings by the Karmapa. #MUSK - regular price $ 18.95 Our Price $15.16 Published by Snow Lion As the second millennium drew to a close, the Seventeenth Karmapa leapt from the roof at his monastery in Tibet. Evading his Chinese guards, the 14-year-old spiritual leader began a grueling, dangerous journey to India. The Karmapa's picture has appeared all over the world since then, yet his own words are hard to find. Now, for the first time in print, Music in the Sky offers a series of the Karmapa's profound teachings, an extensive selection of his poetry, and a detailed and gripping account of his life and flight from his homeland. Readers will be captivated by this wonderfully accessible and profound book. More ... | |
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SKY BURIAL by Blake Kerr, photos by John Ackerly, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, intro. by Heinrich Harrer 186 pp. #SKBU - regular price $ 12.95 Our Price $10.36 Published by Snow Lion "Sky Burial is the distilled truth-- alternately tragic, hilarious, and rousing--of two young Americans' exposure to the joyous spirit of the Tibetan people and their courageous struggle to survive under the brutal subjugation of Chinese communist rule. It is a vivid portrait of a critical moment in Tibet's modern history. An evocative, endearing, and invaluable book."-- John Avedon, author ofIn Exile from the Land of Snows More ... | |
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TRIGG IN TIBET Trigg 64 pp. #TRTIB - regular price $ 6.95 Our Price $3.48 Published by Snow Lion TRIGG in Tibet is a series of topical cartoons from The Hongkong Standard, a daily newspaper. The creator of the series uses satire, barbed humor, symbolism--any device at hand to express the concern about Chinese oppression in Tibet. The result is a cartoon book with a social conscience. 1559390166 | |
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THE ARROW AND THE SPINDLE: Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet by Samten G. Karmay 237 pp.,figures, biblio, index. #ARSP - $ 19.95 This valuable collection may be best described by listing the contents: More ... | |
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AUTHENTICATING TIBET: Answers to China's 100 Questions ed. by Anne-Marie Blondeau and Katia Buffetrille, fore. by Donald Lopez 366 pp., paper. #AUTIAN - $ 24.95 The land of Tibet--its people, culture, and religion--has long been both a source of fascination and an object of contention. Since 1959, Tibet has also been at the center of a particular controversy when China's "peaceful liberation" of the Land of Snows led to the Lhasa uprising and the Dalai Lama's escape to India. In 1989 the Chinese government published a booklet, 100 questions about Tibet, that sought to counter the criticism generated by the Dalai Lama and his followers and to offer the PRC's "truth" about Tibet and Tibetans. Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China's "100 Questions" offers clear and unbiased responses to that booklet. In Authenticating Tibet, international Tibet scholars offer clear, unbiased answers to the 100 questions and deal evenhandedly with both China's perception about Tibet and that of the Dalai Lama and his supporters. Although these experts refute many of the points asserted by China, they do not offer blanket endorsements of the claims made by the pro-Tibet movement. Instead, they provide an accurate, historically-based assessment of Tibet's past and its troubled present. Designed for use by a general audience, the book is an accessible reference, free of the polemics that commonly cloud the Tibet controversy. More ... | |
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A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TIBET by David L. Snellgrove and Hugh Richardson 309 pp., many b&w photos. #CUHITI - $ 35.00 Still one of the most unbiased and readable Tibetan histories, this revised edition weaves an array of archival photos with clear prose to give a fascinating overview of Tibet from ancient to current times. More ... | |
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THE DRAGON IN THE LAND OF SNOWS: A History of Modern Tibet since 1947 by Tsering Shakya 616 pp., 12 b&w photos, now in paper. #DRLASN - $ 17.00 This definitive history of Tibet is based entirely on unpublished primary sources and written by a Western-educated Tibetan author. It shatters the popular perception of Tibet as an isolated Shangri-la unaffected by broader international developments and rises above the simplistic dualism so often encountered in accounts of Tibet's contested recent history. Charting a clear course through the intricacies of the historical record, Tsering Shakya gives a balanced account of Tibet's desperate attempts to maintain her independence and safeguard her cultural identity. More ... | |
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FALLING OFF THE ROOF OF THE WORLD: The Autobiography of the Ven. Lama Dudjom Dorjee by Lama Dudjom Dorjee 214 pp. #FAROWO - $ 13.95 Entertainingly written, with chapter titles such as "Never Steal Tea from a Psychic Lama" and accounts of the author's nomadic childhood, his harrowing escape from Tibet, and the early days at KTD. This charming book is a lively read. More ... | |
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THE FOURTEEN DALAI LAMAS: A Sacred Legacy of Reincarnation by Glenn H. Mullin, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, edited by Valerie Shepherd 535 pp., 15 illus. #SALERE - $ 34.95 "It is nearly thirty years since Glenn H. Mullin first arrived in Dharamsala and began to take an interest in the works of the Dalai Lamas. I admire the persistence with which he has pursued this interest and have sometimes wondered if he has not found out more about them than even I know. Many people have told me that he reveals an ability in his books to make things Tibetan accessible and easily understood to ordinary readers. Therefore, I welcome this volume that is the first to give some account of the lives of all the Dalai Lamas, along with examples of some of their works. I pray that readers will find here some inspiration in their own quest for inner peace."--from the Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama More ... | |
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FREEDOM IN EXILE: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama by The Dalai Lama 256 pp., 16 b&w photos. #FREX - $ 15.00 In this landmark book the Dalai Lama tells his story--from his remarkable childhood as the leader of 6 million Tibetans through the crisis of the Chinese invasion to the present life in exile and re-establishment of his culture in India. | |
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HISTORY AS PROPAGANDA: Tibetan Exiles Versus the People's Republic of China by John Powers 207 pp. Cloth. #HIPRTI - $ 29.50 A thought-provoking, eye-opening look at the psychological pre-suppositions that underlie the conflicting Chinese and Tibetan views of Tibetan history. Power's impartially examines the cultural myths underlying the competing narratives. More ... | |
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THE HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN INDIA by Thrangu Rinpoche 244 pp. #HIBUIN - $ 29.95 In 1991 Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche accompanied a group of western Buddhist students to each of the four major pilgrimage sites from the life of the Buddha (Bodhgaya, Sarnath, Kushinagar, and Lumbini). This book contains the teachings Rinpoche gave to the group at each pilgrimage site, enabling readers to share this unique experience. It also includes Rinpoche's summary of the early history of Buddhism: the twelve great deeds of the Buddha's life; the subsequent Buddhist councils and universities which oversaw the development of the sutras, shastras and tantras; and the emergence of the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions of Buddhism. Rinpoche's teachings are accessible to new students while at the same time offering new insights to advanced students. The teaching are supplemented by a guide to the many sites of Buddhist pilgrimage that Rinpoche mentions in his history, including practical, historical and archaeological information, making this a valuable companion to Buddhist pilgrims. More ... | |
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A HISTORY OF MODERN TIBET, Volume 2: The Calm before the Storm, 1951-1955 by Melvyn C. Goldstein 630 pp., cloth, 26 b&w photos, 4 maps. #HIMOT2 - $ 60.00 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. | |