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Contains a facsimile of original chos-skad [i.e. Tibetan] text, with retyped critical edition, and English translation.
In 2008, Bhutan triumphantly took the stage as the world’s youngest democracy. But despite its growing prominence—and rising scholarly interest in the country—Bhutan remains one of the least studied, and least well-known places on the planet. Karma Phuntsho’s The History of Bhutan is the first book to offer a comprehensive history of Bhutan in English. Along with a detailed social and political analysis, it offers substantive discussions of Bhutan’s geography and culture; the result is the clearest, richest account of this nation and its history ever published for general readers. A 2015 Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title Award Winner
Ritual is one of the most pervasive religious phenomena in the Tibetan cultural world. Despite its ubiquity and importance to Tibetan cultural life, however, only in recent years has Tibetan ritual been given the attention it deserves. This is the first scholarly collection to focus on this important subject. Unique in its historical, geographical and disciplinary breadth, this book brings together eleven essays by an international cast of scholars working on ritual texts, institutions and practices in the greater Tibetan cultural world - Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia. While most of the chapters focus on Buddhism, two deal with ritual in Tibet's indigenous Bon religion. All of the essays are original to this volume. An extensive introduction by the editor provides a broad overview of Tibetan ritual and contextualizes the chapters within the field of Buddhist and Tibetan studies. The book should find use in advanced undergraduate courses and graduate seminars on Tibetan religion. It will also be of interest to students and scholars of ritual generally.
Bhutan is unique amongst the small group of nations in the Himalayas. It is peaceful and democratic. Above all, it emphasizes happiness that is not necessarily associated with possession of material goods. It protects the environment by eschewing mass tourism that could trample its fragile land. Bhutan is also known for creating the world's one and only Index of Happiness as a measure of wellbeing for its people, which it prefers over the more materialistic and widely used index of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 1990, the Bhutanese government invited Western scientists to conduct research in one of Bhutan's most remote villages. Bhutan is a country where spirituality is everywhere, where the logic of the animist/Buddhist religion ordains that life is experienced entirely in the present and where human gender is conceived of as part and parcel of the cosmos. The people of Bhutan identify this experience explicitly as “sustainability.”
Asian populations are among some of the fastest growing cultural groups in the US. While books on serving other target groups in libraries have been published (e.g., disabled, Latino, seniors, etc.), few books on serving library users of Asian heritage have been written. Thus the timely need for this book. Rather than a generalized overview of Asians as a whole, this book has 24 separate chapters—each on 24 specific Asian countries/cultures of East, Southeast, and South Asia—with a wealth of resources for understanding, interacting with, outreaching to, and serving library users of each culture. Resources include cultural guides (both print and online), language helps (with sample librar...
"The Dragon's Gift offers a rare opportunity to introduce, to the wider international audience, some of the most sacred Buddhist images of Bhutan. From the wealth of material surveyed, the organizers of the exhibition have selected over one hundred objects of superior aesthetic achievement and deep religious significance, the vast majority of which have never before been seen in the West. Nearly all of the works of art presented in this catalogue are from active temples and monasteries and remain in ritual use. Most of the items are painted or textile thangkas or gilt bronze sculptures which date primarily from the 17th to the 19th centuries - a golden age in the Buddhist arts of Bhutan. Ran...