Secret Tibet

Author: Fosco Maraini
Publisher: Harvill Press
ISBN: 9781860468735
Category : Tibet (China)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Fosco Maraini looks back at the world he first unfolded nearly 50 years ago in his classic account of the visits he made to Tibet. He brings back to life a world which will never be seen again. In the tradition of Italian travellers from the days of Marco Polo, Maraini went to Tibet to learn, to understand, to give and to receive. His encounter with the people of Tibet, from princesses to peasants, aided as he was by a good knowledge of the language, is a true meeting of minds. The text, which attests to the disciplines of the scholar allied to the sensitivity of the poet, is enriched by the narrative value of the author's photographs, including many Buddhist temple artefacts now forever lost. "From the Hardcover edition.

Magic and Mystery in Tibet

Author: Madame Alexandra David-Neel
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486119440
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
A practicing Buddhist and Oriental linguist recounts supernatural events she witnessed in Tibet during the 1920s. Intelligent and witty, she describes the fantastic effects of meditation and shamanic magic — levitation, telepathy, more. 32 photographs.

The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead

Author: Bryan J. Cuevas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195306521
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
In 1927, Oxford University Press published the first western-language translation of a collection of Tibetan funerary texts (the Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Bardo) under the title The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Since that time, the work has established a powerful hold on the western popular imagination, and is now considered a classic of spiritual literature. Over the years, The Tibetan Book of the Dead has inspired numerous commentaries, an illustrated edition, a play, a video series, and even an opera. Translators, scholars, and popular devotees of the book have claimed to explain its esoteric ideas and reveal its hidden meaning. Few, however, have uttered a word about its history. Bryan J. Cuevas seeks to fill this gap in our knowledge by offering the first comprehensive historical study of the Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Bardo, and by grounding it firmly in the context of Tibetan history and culture. He begins by discussing the many ways the texts have been understood (and misunderstood) by westerners, beginning with its first editor, the Oxford-educated anthropologist Walter Y. Evans-Wentz, and continuing through the present day. The remarkable fame of the book in the west, Cuevas argues, is strikingly disproportionate to how the original Tibetan texts were perceived in their own country. Cuevas tells the story of how The Tibetan Book of the Dead was compiled in Tibet, of the lives of those who preserved and transmitted it, and explores the history of the rituals through which the life of the dead is imagined in Tibetan society. This book provides not only a fascinating look at a popular and enduring spiritual work, but also a much-needed corrective to the proliferation of ahistorical scholarship surrounding The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Tibet

Author: Michel Peissel
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312309534
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
A passionate homage to Tibet in words and pictures by one of the last great explorers who brings the geographical, spiritual, and intellectual heart of the country to life. 250 photos.

Spies and Commandos

Author: Kenneth Conboy
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700611479
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Book Description
During the Vietnam war, the United States sought to undermine Hanoi's subversion of the Saigon regime by sending Vietnamese operatives behind enemy lines. A secret to most Americans, this covert operation was far from secret in Hanoi: all of the commandos were killed or captured, and many were turned by the Communists to report false information. Spies and Commandos traces the rise and demise of this secret operation-started by the CIA in 1960 and expanded by the Pentagon beginning in1964-in the first book to examine the program from both sides of the war. Kenneth Conboy and Dale Andrade interviewed CIA and military personnel and traveled in Vietnam to locate former commandos who had been captured by Hanoi, enabling them to tell the complete story of these covert activities from high-level decision making to the actual experiences of the agents. The book vividly describes scores of dangerous missions-including raids against North Vietnamese coastal installations and the air-dropping of dozens of agents into enemy territory-as well as psychological warfare designed to make Hanoi believe the "resistance movement" was larger than it actually was. It offers a more complete operational account of the program than has ever been made available-particularly its early years-and ties known events in the war to covert operations, such as details of the "34-A Operations" that led to the Tonkin Gulf incidents in 1964. It also explains in no uncertain terms why the whole plan was doomed to failure from the start. One of the remarkable features of the operation, claim the authors, is that its failures were so glaring. They argue that the CIA, and later the Pentagon, was unaware for years that Hanoi had compromised the commandos, even though some agents missed radio deadlines or filed suspicious reports. Operational errors were not attributable to conspiracy or counterintelligence, they contend, but simply to poor planning and lack of imagination. Although it flourished for ten years under cover of the wider war, covert activity in Vietnam is now recognized as a disaster. Conboy and Andrade's account of that episode is a sobering tale that lends a new perspective on the war as it reclaims the lost lives of these unsung spies and commandos.

To Lhasa in Disguise

Author: William Montgomery McGovern
Publisher: New York, Century
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 526

Book Description
William Montgomery McGovern was an American adventurer, anthropologist and journalist. He was possibly an inspiration for the character of Indiana Jones. McGovern claims he had to sneak into the Tibet disguised as a local porter. As Time reported in 1938: With a few Tibetan servants, he climbed through the wild, snowy passes of the Himalayas. There, in the bitter cold, he stood naked while a companion covered his body with brown stain, squirted lemon juice into his blue eyes to darken them. Thus disguised as a coolie, he arrived in the Forbidden City without being detected, but disclosed himself to the civilian officials. A fanatical mob led by Buddhist monks stoned his house. Bill McGovern slipped out through a back door and joined the mob in throwing stones. The civil government took him into protective custody, finally sent him back to India with an escort.--Wikipedia.

Tibet's Secret Mountain

Author: Chris Bonington
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
ISBN: 191256016X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Book Description
For Chris Bonington and Charles Clarke, long-time friends and expedition partners, few mountains were more alluring than Sepu Kangri. Known locally as 'the Great White Snow God', Tibet's nearly 7,000-metre mountain had never before been visited by Westerners. Armed only with a tourist map for reference, the two set off for this elusive peak in 1996. In the reconnaissance and two expeditions that followed, neither of them were expecting to be profoundly impacted by their experiences. However, they not only met their match in Sepu Kangri, but both found their expertise pushed to the limit. While Clarke acted as a travelling doctor, treating myriad ailments encountered along the way, including a life-saving diagnosis of an ectopic pregnancy, Bonington's love of technology saw him testing out cutting-edge satellite phones and computers, allowing them to communicate with the outside world for the first time on an expedition. Tibet's Secret Mountain is a story of discovery as much as it is an account of the expeditions, and it is this that sets it apart from other mountaineering memoirs. The focus not only on the climbing itself, but the experiences, people and tensions that accompany it, offers a poignancy that anyone with a love of adventure will identify with. Beautifully written and full of unfailing cheer, Tibet's Secret Mountain is Bonington and Clarke's love letter to mountaineering.

Darkness Over Tibet

Author: Theodore Illion
Publisher: Blue Poppy Enterprises, Inc.
ISBN: 9780932813145
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Book Description
"While traveling in disguise in Tibet in the early 1930's, Illion made some chance acquaintances which led to the contacts with an occult fraternity and an invitation to visit the underground city. There he had some truly remarkable experiences, which are recorded in this book. Ilion was one of the first travelers to penetrate Tibet while it was still sealed off from the outside world. Some believe these stories are clearly symbolic but may have some basis and fact and probably capture some of the spirit of popular belief in the region. Determining the account's precise accuracy is difficult from a Western standpoint."--Back cover

When the Iron Bird Flies

Author: Jianglin Li
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503629791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 421

Book Description
An untold story that reshapes our understanding of Chinese and Tibetan history From 1956 to 1962, devastating military conflicts took place in China's southwestern and northwestern regions. Official record at the time scarcely made mention of the campaign, and in the years since only lukewarm acknowledgment of the violence has surfaced. When the Iron Bird Flies, by Jianglin Li, breaks this decades long silence to reveal for the first time a comprehensive and explosive picture of the six years that would prove definitive in modern Tibetan and Chinese history. The CCP referred to the campaign as "suppressing the Tibetan rebellion." It would lead to the 14th Dalai Lama's exile in India, as well as the Tibetan diaspora in 1959, though the battles lasted three additional years after these events. Featuring key figures in modern Chinese history, the battles waged in this period covered a vast geographical region. This book offers a portrait of chaos, deception, heroism, and massive loss. Beyond the significant death toll across the Tibetan regions, the war also destroyed most Tibetan monasteries in a concerted effort to eradicate local religion and scholarship. Despite being considered a military success, to this day, the operations in the agricultural regions remain unknown. As large numbers of Tibetans have self-immolated in recent years to protest Chinese occupation, Li shows that the largest number of cases occurred in the sites most heavily affected by this hidden war. She argues persuasively that the events described in this book will shed more light on our current moment, and will help us understand the unrelenting struggle of the Tibetan people for their freedom.

Trespassers on the Roof of the World

Author: Peter Hopkirk
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN: 1848547269
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Book Description
No other land has captured man's imagination quite like Tibet. Hidden away behind the highest mountains on earth, and ruled over by a mysterious God-king, it was for centuries a land forbidden to all outsiders. In this remarkable and ultimately tragic narrative, Peter Hopkirk recounts the forcible opening up of this medieval Buddhist kingdom by inquisitive Western travellers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the race to reach Lhasa, Tibet's sacred capital. This epic, often harrowing tale, which ends with the Chinese invasion of 1950, draws on a colourful cast of gatecrashers from nine different countries. Among them were adventurous young officers on Great Game missions, explorers and mountaineers, mystics and missionaries. All took their lives in their hands, including three intrepid women. Some were never to return.