Tibetan Civilization

An overall view of the Tibetan civilization, both ancient and modern Tibet. This book relates developments in Tibet to those in the rest of Asia.

How interesting it is to realize that the lifestyle we live, beliefs and faith we live by and the language we converse in, all has its own distinct history of origination and how it has evolved and progressed over time to become everything present today. The book is a marvellous attempt to understand one’s own civilization enlightening the path to startling revelation on ‘How did Tibetan civilization came about?’. The widely popularized Tibetan origin myth of ‘The Monkey and the Ogress’, is it really true? Did Tibet really had its first king descended from the sky? How is Tibetan scripts so similar to the Gupta Brahmi script? This book leaves no stone unturned to fill this grey area on the dawn of Tibetan civilization and intrigues the readers to deliberate over the subject. ‘The Ancient Tibetan Civilization’ explicitly debunks popular mythologies, misconceptions and misinformation surrounding the origination and evolution of Tibetan civilization. -Tenzin Wangmo

The young ruler of Tibet donned the traditional garb of a Tibetan tribesman and fled on horesback to India to escape the Chinese occupation of his homeland. The 14th Dalai Lama arrived in Indiain the spring of 1959, the first and most illustrious refugee of the waves soon to pour out from the ancient 'Forbidden Kingdom'. "The Renaissance of Tibetan Civilization" is an inspiring story of the power of courage and hope - the story of refugees who arrived destitute at the frontiers of India and Nepal, yet a mere forty years later have managed to rebuild the essential patterns of Tibetan culture in exile as a legacy for the future. The book documents the struggle for survival and the emerging way of life of individual refugees and families, as well as there construction of religious and artistic traditions. Per Kvaerne appends an essay on the Bon religion which augments the background material necessary for understanding the ingredients of the diaspora. The forced exodus of Tibetan culture is one of the most remarkable stories of our time: how an enclosed and highly conservative community assumed global significance, in the realm of politics as well as in the realm of culture. The tragedy of Tibet has enriched the world by giving it access to the high intellectual and artistic values which gave Tibetans their sense of meaning.

This unique book reveals the existence of an advanced civilization where none was known before, presenting an entirely new perspective on the culture and history of Tibet. In his groundbreaking study of an epic period in Tibet few people even knew existed, John Vincent Bellezza details the discovery of an ancient people on the most desolate reaches of the Tibetan plateau, revolutionizing our ideas about who Tibetans really are. While many associate Tibet with Buddhism, it was also once a land of warriors and chariots, whose burials included megalithic arrays and golden masks. This first Tibetan civilization, known as Zhang Zhung, was a cosmopolitan one with links extending across Eurasia, bringing it in line with many of the major cultural innovations of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age. Based on decades of research, The Dawn of Tibet draws on a rich trove of archaeological, textual, and ethnographic materials collected and analyzed by the author. Bellezza describes the vast network of castles, temples, megaliths, necropolises, and rock art established on the highest and now depopulated part of the Tibetan plateau. He relates literary tales of priests and priestesses, horned deities, and the celestial afterlife to the actual archaeological evidence, providing a fascinating perspective on the origins and development of civilization. The story builds to the present by following the colorful culture of the herders of Upper Tibet, an ancient people whose way of life is endangered by modern development. Tracing Bellezza’s epic journeys across lands where few Westerners have ventured, this book provides a compelling window into the most inaccessible reaches of Tibet and a civilization that flourished long before Buddhism took root.

Covering the social, cultural, and political development of Tibet from the seventh century to the modern period, this resource reproduces essential, hard-to-find essays from the past fifty years of Tibetan studies, along with several new contributions. Beginning with Tibet's emergence as a regional power and concluding with its profound contemporary transformations, the collection is both a general and specific history, connecting the actions of individuals, communities, and institutions to broader historical trends shaping Asia and the world. With contributions from American, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan scholars, the anthology reflects the international character of Tibetan studies and its multiple, interdisciplinary perspectives. By far the most concise scholarly anthology on Tibetan civilization in any Western language, this reader draws a clear portrait of Tibet's history, its relation to its neighbors, and its role in world affairs.

Early medieval Tibet remains one of the most challenging fields in Tibetan Studies overall, wherein numerous mysteries remain. The six contributions comprising the present collection shed light on major topics in history, literature and religion.