This illustrated volume presents a wide variety of themes from the historical and modern periods of Bhutan, illustrating change and adaptation to new realities. Topics covered include the exploration of early history, Buddhism and the lives of Bhutanese Buddhist saints, the changing role of local, non-Buddhist religious practitioners in today’s society, traditional law and the emergence of a modern legal system, and the seasonal celebrations of an aristocratic family from central Bhutan. The book will be of special interest to students of early Tibetan history, legal history, comparative sociology and cultural anthropology of the Himalayan regions.

The papers provide access for the first time to Tibetan documents and practices from the period of the tenth to fifteenth century.

These essential readings in the emerging field of Tibetan literary studies offer specialists and non-specialists provocative new studies of contemporary Tibetan literature and criticism, ranging from discussions of individual works to theoretical interventions. The nature of Tibetan literature as both a regional voice within China and a transnational voice in the world is explored by L. Hartley on the relationship between the terms rtsom-rig, wen, and literature, F. Robin on historical fiction, L. Maconi on literature in the Yunnan Tibetan areas, T. Dhondup on Mongolian-Tibetan writers, J. Drakpa on poetic explication, P. Schiaffini on the creation of Tibetan subjectivities, F.X. Erhard on magical realism, and Gray Tuttle’s interview with writer and critic Pema Bhum.

The papers in this volume all result from field work in the Indian Himalayas and the TAR conducted by the Interdisciplinary Research Unit, Austrian Science Fund. While the research goals were established within the framework of transdisciplinary research, each scholar approaches scientific problems according to the methodologies associated with their respective disciplines: philology, philosophy, history, art history, linguistics, and anthropology. In the contribution published here, Steinkellner, Klimburg-Salter, Widorn, and Jahoda explicate the structure, methods, and advantages of transdisciplinary research. Lasic and Tauscher analyse two different philosophical questions on the basis of manuscripts from Tabo (Spiti) and Gondhla (Lahaul). Pasang Wangdu, Tropper and Ponweiser each examine a Buddhist monument from a different perspective: Keru (TAR), Wanla (Ladakh), and Tabo. Papa-Kalantari and Hein discuss respectively an iconographic problem and oral traditions from Spiti and upper Kinnaur.

This volume provides essential readings in the emerging interdisciplinary field of Tibetan literary studies. Chapters range from discussions of individual contemporary texts to theoretical interventions in literary and Tibetan studies.

The papers in this volume discuss issues related to Tibetan art from the 7th the 20th century, dealing with relevant religious and historical sources, religious painting and iconography, medical iconography, painting materials and schools, metalwork, ritual objects, photographic records, artists.

This volume deals with specific issues related to Tibetan art, ranging from the earliest Buddhist buildings in central, southern and eastern geocultural Tibet up to the artistic traditions flourishing in the 20th century. The papers are arranged following the chronology of the sites or the themes taken into consideration in the first part and logical criteria in the latter part. Illustrated with numerous black-and-white pictures and 32 pages of colour plates, its contents are of special interest to scholars and specialists, while a large part is accessible to non-specialists, too, which makes the book useful also to university students interested in the subject as well as amateurs of Tibetan art.