A Buddhist Pilgrim at the Shrines of Tibet
Leiden: Brill, 2017. Tsybikov was the first scholar with a European education to visit Tibet and describe its monasteries and temples as an eyewitness traveler and an objective researcher. Tsybikov had two distinct advantages: an ethnic Buryat he could travel as a Buddhist pilgrim and thus have a chance of reaching its mysterious capital Lhasa, the religious and political center of Tibet, which was barred to outsiders, especially Europeans; as a scholar educated at a European university he had the historical and linguistic background to understand and describe what he saw. Tsybikov understood the secretive nature of the lama state and was careful to hide his work as a researcher. It was his journal that became the basis of A Buddhist Pilgrim at the Shrines of Tibet, which has both the vividness of a traveller's eyewitness account and the informed detachment of a scholar. As a record of both religious practices and the everyday life in Tibet before changes of the twentieth century, Tsybikov's book is a unique and invaluable snapshot of a rich culture. 281 p., approx. 40 b/w illus., ENGLISH. Brill's Tibetan studies library, 42. Item #2138
ISBN: 9789004335769
Chapter titles: Preface to the English edition -- Author's autobiographical note to the 1919 edition -- Preface to the 1919 edition -- Pilgrims on the way from Urga to Kumbum -- The holy places of Amdo : Kumbum and Labrang -- Kumbum to Lhasa -- Lhasa : the city and its main shrines -- The population of Lhasa -- Life in Lhasa -- The administration of Tibet -- The Dalai Lamas -- An episode from the life of the present Dalai Lama --The organization and administration of the chief monasteries in the environs of Lhasa -- Ganden Monastery -- Drepun Monastery -- Sera Monastery -- Tashi-Lhunpo Monastery -- From Tashi-Lhunpo to Lhasa -- A journey to Tsetan and Samye -- Going home : journey from Lhasa to Kyakhta -- Glossary.
Price: $84.00