The Manual of Standard Tibetan presents the everyday speech of Lhasa as it is currently used in Tibet and among the Tibetan diaspora. It not only places the language in its natural context but also highlights along the way key aspects of Tibetan civilization and Vajrayana Buddhism. The Manual, which consists of forty-one lessons, is illustrated with many drawings and photographs and also includes two informative political and linguistic maps of Tibet. Two CDs provide an essential oral complement to the manual. A detailed introduction presents a linguistic overview of spoken and...

While providing unique and detailed information on early Tibeto-Burman languages and their contact and relationship to other languages, this book at the same times sets out to establish a field of Tibeto-Burman comparative-historical linguistics based on the classical Indo-European model. With papers by C. Bauer on Burmese and Mon, C. Beckwith on Old Tibetan syllable margins, B. Zeisler on Tibetan case marking, R. Yanson on Burmese historical phonology, G. Jacques on Tangut rimes, K. Iwasa on early Lolo manuscripts, v. Kasevich on the causative in Tibeto-Burman, and C. Beckwith on old Tibetan...

This groundbreaking study focuses on a village called Te in a "Tibetanized" region of northern Nepal. While Te's people are nominally Buddhist, and engage the services of resident Tibetan Tantric priests for a range of rituals, they are also exponents of a local religion that involves blood sacrifices to wild, unconverted territorial gods and goddesses. The village is unusual in the extent to which it has maintained its local autonomy and also in the degree to which both Buddhism and the cults of local gods have been subordinated to the pragmatic demands of the village community.

Charles...