The 1990s has seen an unprecedented modernisation offensive in Tibet, and an attempt to transform the ancient capital into a frontier boom-town. But how much say do Tibetans have in
Becoming good Buddhists may well be a matter of people becoming something they look as though they might have been but never actually were.
Chogyam Trungpa, the renowned guru, once
Tibetan ritual music is not a pastiche of gentle good feeling about the Universe. It is an alarm to the system, waking us up to the vibrancy of the world
When future historians look back, they may find that it is the dharma's universalism, rather than Tibet's victimisation, that explains the extraordinary worldwide public support for
Were Tibet a developing country rather than a sullen Autonomous Region (U-Tsang and a truncated Kham), the prevailing mantras in seminars and gostis in Lhasa in 1992 would all be
Tibetan Buddhism is enjoying growing popularity in the West and in Southeast Asia. But as the religious empire grows, followers are asking more difficult questions of the dharma as well
Himalayan publishing in European languages spells big money, but the market is dominated by books about idyllic mountains and touristic pursuits. While serious publishers in the region face hardships, some
Bhutan's economy, which had historically looked north to Tibet, reached a turning point in 1865, when the Sinchula Treaty was signed with British India. This reorientation from north
Although both are generically called 'Drukpas', the world knows of Bhutan through the pastoral/peasant Ngalung society of western Bhutan rather than the forest dwelling Sarchops of the
The diversity of species in this little corner of the Tibetan Plateau is impressive, but under threat.
A naturalist today would be hard pressed to name a truly wild paradise,
