Description
The most comprehensive collection of Tibetan works in a Western language, this volume illuminates the complex historical, intellectual, and social development of Tibetan civilization from its earliest beginnings to the modern period. Including more than 180 representative writings, Sources of Tibetan Tradition spans Tibet's vast geography and long history, presenting for the first time a diversity of works by religious and political leaders; scholastic philosophers and contemplative hermits; monks and nuns; poets and artists; and aristocrats and commoners. The selected readings reflect the profound role of Buddhist sources in shaping Tibetan culture while illustrating other major areas of knowledge. Thematically varied, they address history and historiography; political and social theory; law; medicine; divination; rhetoric; aesthetic theory; narrative; travel and geography; folksong; and philosophical and religious learning, all in relation to the unique trajectories of Tibetan civil and scholarly discourse. The editors begin each chapter with a survey of broader social and cultural contexts and introduce each translated text with a concise explanation. Concluding with writings that extend into the early twentieth century, this volume offers an expansive encounter with Tibet's exceptional intellectual heritage.
Sources of Tibetan Tradition represents a mammoth and long-overdue contribution to the field, both as a basic reference tool for scholars and as a keystone of undergraduate and graduate education. -- Annabella Pitkin, Barnard College The editors have done a remarkable job of selecting sources from a 1,500-year-old civilization for a single volume. They provide not only representative texts on Tibetan religion from all eras but also significant sources on history, politics, society, law, medicine, art, architecture, and literature. -- Roger R. Jackson, editor of The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems: A Tibetan Study of Asian Religious Thought
About the Author
Kurtis R. Schaeffer is professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He is the author of The Culture of the Book in Tibet and Himalayan Hermitess: The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun. With Gray Tuttle, he is coeditor of The Tibetan History Reader. Matthew T. Kapstein is director of Tibetan Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris and Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Tibetans and The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory. Gray Tuttle is the Leila Hadley Luce Associate Professor of Modern Tibet in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. He is the author of Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China and the editor of Mapping the Modern in Tibet. With Kurtis R. Schaeffer, he is coeditor of The Tibetan History Reader.
Reviews
... A welcome addition and marks the maturation of Tibetan studies as a discipline. Bulletin of SOAS This volume is a great achievement and a testament to the hard work of its editors and contributors... Students and other readers wishing to obtain an overview of the contemporary field of Tibetan Studies could not do better. -- Sam van Schaik Journal of the American Oriental Society
Book Information
ISBN 9780231135986
Author Kurtis R. Schaeffer
Format Hardback
Page Count 856
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
Sources of Tibetan Tradition represents a mammoth and long-overdue contribution to the field, both as a basic reference tool for scholars and as a keystone of undergraduate and graduate education. -- Annabella Pitkin, Barnard College The editors have done a remarkable job of selecting sources from a 1,500-year-old civilization for a single volume. They provide not only representative texts on Tibetan religion from all eras but also significant sources on history, politics, society, law, medicine, art, architecture, and literature. -- Roger R. Jackson, editor of The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems: A Tibetan Study of Asian Religious Thought
About the Author
Kurtis R. Schaeffer is professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He is the author of The Culture of the Book in Tibet and Himalayan Hermitess: The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun. With Gray Tuttle, he is coeditor of The Tibetan History Reader. Matthew T. Kapstein is director of Tibetan Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris and Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Tibetans and The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory. Gray Tuttle is the Leila Hadley Luce Associate Professor of Modern Tibet in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. He is the author of Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China and the editor of Mapping the Modern in Tibet. With Kurtis R. Schaeffer, he is coeditor of The Tibetan History Reader.
Reviews
... A welcome addition and marks the maturation of Tibetan studies as a discipline. Bulletin of SOAS This volume is a great achievement and a testament to the hard work of its editors and contributors... Students and other readers wishing to obtain an overview of the contemporary field of Tibetan Studies could not do better. -- Sam van Schaik Journal of the American Oriental Society
Book Information
ISBN 9780231135986
Author Kurtis R. Schaeffer
Format Hardback
Page Count 856
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
