A contemporary landmark in English-language writing on the subject of Tibetan Buddhism, this antiquarian text contains a wealth of information written in a remarkably clear manner and accompanied by a plethora of rich visual documentation in the form of photographs and line drawings. A book containing an extraordinary amount of factual documentation pertaining to Tibetan Buddhism, this text provides a fascinating insight into the roots and practices of the religion and, given the destruction of a great deal of Tibetan religious sites, a lot of what has been recorded here will never be seen...

A successful officer in the colonial Indian Medical Service, Glasgow-educated Laurence Austine Waddell (1854-1938) was fascinated by the landscapes and cultures of Darjeeling and Tibet, studied local languages, and spent his leisure time researching and writing on Tibetan topics. His earlier books The Buddhism of Tibet (1895) and Among the Himalayas (1899) are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. Waddell had attempted to enter Lhasa (then closed to foreigners) in disguise in 1892, but did not succeed until he accompanied the controversial British expedition to Tibet in 1903-4;...