High Peaks Pure Earth presents the (end of) Summer 2024 Tibet Reading List! We’ve updated the previous Winter Reading List to include over 20 more titles covering the span of the entire Tibetan Buddhist world.
If you think we’ve missed anything or if you have a particular recommendation please feel free to get in touch with us, it’s impossible for us to keep track of all Tibet-related publications! You’re also welcome as always to write short reviews in the comments section or on your social media, just tag us so that we see it or use the hashtag #TibetReadingList.
We’ve continued to add links to Bookshop.org, if you buy books linked from our site, we may earn a small commission and, at the same time, you are supporting independent bookshops! Where books are not available on Bookshop we have provided links to either Amazon or to the publishers direct.
See below for the new books added to the existing Tibet Reading Lists. For ease, we have (broadly) categorised them. For books not directly about Tibet but may include Tibet or be of general interest, we have placed them in the section at the bottom called Special Mentions. Do also look out for the titles which are Open Access.
Happy reading!
Politics, History and Non-Fiction
“The Book of Compassion” By His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kailash Satyarthi
Published by Penguin India in May 2024, “The Book of Compassion” brings together two Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kailash Satyarthi, along with writer Pooja Pande, to advocate for compassion in today’s world.
From the publisher’s website:
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kailash Satyarthi open a window to the concept ‘Compassion’, which according is undoubtedly the most significant requirement of our existence. Compassion is no longer a luxury’, says His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It is ‘a necessity if our species is to survive’. Kailash Satyarthi urges us all to consider a flight of compassion as it inspires everyone to free ourselves from the shackles of limitations in order to explore the limitless possibilities of life.
In the post-pandemic world, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and social reformer and global thought leader Kailash Satyarthi bring to light the idea to cultivate compassion and why honest concern for others is the key factor in improving our day-to-day lives. From inequalities to injustice to climate change, the influence of Gandhi to ancient Indian and Tibetan knowledge system, importance of education for children, and the idea of an interconnected world, among others, in The Book of Compassion two globally renowned spiritual and moral leaders reveal their vision for a globalized compassion that promotes freedom, joy and inner peace.
Available on Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4863/9781846046339
Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3LWm5gc
“Imperial Games in Tibet” By Dilip Sinha
Published by Pan Macmillan India in May 2024, “Imperial Games in Tibet” by former Indian Ambassador Dilip Sinha is an account of how Tibet became the playground for global geopolitical ambitions and what the future may hold for this precarious region fighting for statehood. Read a review of the book written by Tibetan author Tsering Namgyal Khortsa.
From the publisher’s website:
Renowned as the ‘roof of the world’, Tibet is both a spiritual bastion and a hotbed of geopolitical intrigue. Its unique location, nestled amidst the majestic Himalaya and the vast Central Asian steppes, has historically attracted imperial contenders, thrusting it into the heart of the Great Game – a stormy nineteenth-century contest for supremacy involving Britain, Russia and China.
In “Imperial Games in Tibet”, former ambassador Dilip Sinha deftly guides us through the region’s complex geopolitical entanglements, charting its history from the rise of Tibetan Buddhism, through the cloak-and-dagger machinations of the Great Game, to its fateful invasion and annexation by China in 1950. In the process, he reveals the real factors leading up to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s escape to India in 1959 – an epochal event that drew the newly independent nation into this political maelstrom and heightened Sino-Indian tensions. More than seventy years later, despite citizens protests and global outcry, Chinese ‘suzerainty’ maintains its grip on Tibet, begging the question: Can Tibet ever be free?
Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3SE67vf
“My Life – Born in Free Tibet, Served in Exile” By Tashi Wangdi
Published in June 2024 by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, “My Life – Born in Free Tibet, Served in Exile” are the memoirs of Tashi Wangdi, former Minister of the Central Tibetan Administration.
The book was launched in Dharamsala, India in the presence of Sikyong Penpa Tsering. It delves into a detailed first-hand narrative of pivotal moments in the history of Tibetan exile, encompassing the inception of the Tibetan government in exile, its negotiations with the Chinese government, and His Holiness’s global recognition through prestigious accolades such as the Nobel Peace Prize, the US Congressional Gold Medal, and Honorary Canadian Citizenship, among others.
The e-book is available via the Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=xeMOEQAAQBAJ
“Taken Away: The Ordinary Life of a Lama” By Doboom Tulku and Sudhamahi Regunathan
Published in May 2024 by Bloomsbury India, “Taken Away: The Ordinary Life of a Lama” is the autobiography of the late Doboom Tulku Rinpoche who passed away on 29 January 2024 at the age of 82.
From the publisher’s website:
The firstborn of a nomadic couple in Tibet, the child had barely learnt to walk when he was identified as the third reincarnation of Doboom Tulku and taken away from his parents. Told movingly but unsentimentally and with care and humour, Doboom Tulku’s to become a revered Rinpoche in the Gelukpa tradition. ‘I want to demystify the life of a monk,’ he declares. ‘It was like that of any other.’ And yet it obviously was not.
Told movingly but unsentimentally and with care and humour, Doboom Tulku’s life story is also the extraordinary story of Tibetans, especially those from monastic orders, finding their place and purpose in foreign lands.
Available on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/4dmWgle
“Tibetan Monastery Collections and Museums” By Christian Luczanits and Louise Tythacott (eds)
Published in January 2024, “Tibetan Monastery Collections and Museums” by Christian Luczanits and Louise Tythacott (eds) is the latest volume in the Vajra Academic series.
Endorsement by Clare Harris, Professor of Visual Anthropology at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford:
“This is a fascinating book on a subject that has not previously received concerted academic attention. The editors have done an excellent job in bringing together the recent scholarship on this topic in a collection of 10 essays written by specialists, many of whom have hands-on experience of working with or in the museums under discussion.
With its detailed chapters, ranging from close-focus art historical analysis of Tibetan objects to theorised discussion of the processes of curating in Tibetan/ Himalayan contexts, I think the volume will be greatly appreciated by academics and students of Tibetan Buddhism and of Tibetan and Himalayan history and culture, as well as those in art history and in museum studies. It will also be invaluable for members of the communities where these museums have been created (especially in Nepal and Ladakh).”
Publisher’s website: https://vajrabookshop.com/product/tibetan-monastery-collections-and-museums-traditional-practices-and-contemporary-issues/
Available on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3ymYfY0
Available on Bookshop here: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4863/9789937733410
“Wall Painting in Tibet: History, Technique, Survival and Environment” By Knud Larsen
Published by Tronfjell Publications in 2023, this book is a follow-up to the 2001 “The Lhasa Atlas. Traditional Tibetan Architecture and Townscape”.
From the book description:
This book is a result of an effort the educate Tibetan artists in modern conservation techniques, to carry out the first ever scientific investigation of traditional Tibetan wall painting, to describe traditional wall painting techniques and to illustrate this by surveying some of the finest surviving murals in 14 different locations, monasteries and caves, in Central and Western Tibet.
The book is extensively illustrated with more than 400 colour photographs, most of them by Roberto Fortuna from the Danish National Museum and by 18 new architectural drawings of monasteries and caves, most of which never surveyed properly before. The 350 pages also contain, in some cases extensive, descriptions of the sites by ten scholars of Tibetology. The scholars are Mainland Chinese, Tibetan, Swiss, German and American and their original manuscripts were written in Chinese, Tibetan and English.
Available for purchase here: https://www.namsebangdzo.com/Wall-Painting-in-Tibet-Knud-Larsen-p/9788230359389.htm
Two Online Publications by Roberto Vitali
There are two new online Open Access publications by researcher and scholar Roberto Vitali published this year in Dharamsala, India by Mutag Books. “Essays on the History of Tibet” and “Early bKa’ brgyud pa Masters on the “Upper side” (1191-1344) are both freely available to download from as PDFs from http://vitali-tibet.com
Literature, Religion and Art
“Tibetan Buddhism: A Guide to Contemplation, Meditation, and Transforming Your Mind” By Khenpo Sodargye
Published by Shambhala Publications in January 2024, “Tibetan Buddhism: A Guide to Contemplation, Meditation, and Transforming Your Mind” by Khenpo Sodargye is an overview of Tibetan Buddhism from a leading contemporary teacher.
From the publisher’s website:
This guide shares Tibetan Buddhist insight and tools that will benefit everyone in transforming their mind. Khenpo Sodargye, who has attracted hundreds of thousands of students worldwide with his concise, easy-to-follow teaching style, sketches the big picture of the Mahayana path in straightforward language with stories relevant to everyday life.
This book introduces a systematic approach to studying Buddhism. Through proper listening, contemplating, and meditating, we can generate the wisdom that enables us to recognize, control, and uproot our afflictions, which is the essence of Buddhism. This book is the perfect companion for anyone wanting to learn more about the basics of Mahayana Buddhism or to strengthen the foundations of their spiritual practice.
Available on Bookshop here: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4863/9781645472247
Available on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3SKp3s5
“Longing to Awaken: Buddhist Devotion in Tibetan Poetry and Song” By Holly Gayley and Dominique Townsend (Eds)
Published in August 2024 by the University of Virginia Press, “Longing to Awaken: Buddhist Devotion in Tibetan Poetry and Song” by Holly Gayley and Dominique Townsend (Eds) is a collection of Buddhist devotional poems and songs.
From the publisher’s website:
Longing to Awaken features twenty-five translations of Buddhist devotional poems and songs composed by revered Tibetan masters from diverse traditions and time periods. The anthology invites readers to experience a variety of poetic forms that embody a range of emotions, from grief and longing to skepticism and humor, demonstrating the ways that poetry can inspire faith as well as reflect the profundity and at times fraught nature of the teacher-student relationship. This collection gives weight to literary—not simply literal—translation as a crucial endeavor in the transmission of Buddhism today, one with the potential to raise the profile of Tibetan poetry onto the stage of global literature.
Featuring a remarkable interview with esteemed Tibetan master Jetsün Khandro Rinpoché to elucidate Buddhist devotion and a landmark essay by Lama Jabb articulating a Tibetan theory for translating poetry.
Available on Bookshop here: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4863/9780813950693
Available on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3yJSl38
“The Gongkar Lamdre: Masters in Khyenluk Style”
Published in April 2024 by Gongkar Choede Monastery in Dehradun, India, “The Gongkar Lamdre: Masters in Khyenluk Style” is a bilingual illustrated art book on the history of the Gongkar Lamdre lineage and the Khyenluk school of Tibetan painting (mkhyen lugs/mkhyen ris). The project was funded by the Department of Religion and Culture (CTA, Dharamsala, India).
The book is available online for free here: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Gongkar_Lamdre_Masters_in_Khyenluk_S/JugGEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
“Sphinxlike” by Chime Lama
Published in January 2024 by Finishing Line Press, “Sphinxlike” is a collection of poetry by Tibetan American writer, translator and multi-genre artist Chime Lama. “Sphinxlike” is an exercise in stretching language, containing concrete poetry, Tibetan Buddhist thought, and the curated and out-of-body experience. It offers social critique and responds to capitalism and sexism with absurdity and humor. Activating visual art, sound poetry, and performance art, its poems collide and scatter across the page in an attempt to expand through space.
Available via the publisher: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/sphinxlike-by-chime-lama/
“Learning Tibetan” By Lekey Leidecker
Published by Blackneck Books, India, “Learning Tibetan” is a poetry volume by Tibetan writer and poet Lekey Leidecker who was born and raised in Berea, Kentucky. Tenzin Dickie, editor of The Penguin Book of Modern Tibetan Essays, writes: Lekey dissects exile, belonging and unbelonging in language precise, spare and powerful. Ferocious and tender, these poems are both a surrender to heartbreak and a victory over it.’
Contact Blacknect Books for this title via their social media channels: https://www.instagram.com/blackneckbooks/
“Murder of Tenzin” (བསྟན་འཛིན་བསད་པ།) by Tenzin Nyima
Published in May 2024 by Blackneck Books, India, “Murder of Tenzin” (བསྟན་འཛིན་བསད་པ།) by Tenzin Nyima is a Tibetan language novel for young adults. This murder mystery is, perhaps, a first of its kind in Tibetan language written by a young college student.
Contact Blacknect Books for this title via their social media channels: https://www.instagram.com/blackneckbooks/
“Carrying Memories” By Kalsang Yangzom
Published by Blackneck Books, India, “Carrying Memories” by Kalsang Yangzom is a book of poems about home, longing, and belonging — in and between various spaces and cultures.
Contact Blacknect Books for this title via their social media channels: https://www.instagram.com/blackneckbooks/
“Queens Without a Kingdom Worth Ruling: Buddhist Nuns and the Process of change in Tibetan Monastic Communities” By Chandra Chiara Ehm
Published in April 2024 by Vajra Books, Nepal, “Queens Without a Kingdom Worth Ruling” by Chandra Chiara Ehm is an ethnography offering a first-hand account of life in a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery, carefully calibrated within a theoretical frame to investigate the historical social aspects of monastic institutions.
From the publisher’s website:
Looking through the walls of a cloistered monastic community, such as a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery, is nearly impossible as lay person. These religious communities are multi-layered in being simultaneously places of spiritual development, Buddhist scholasticism, and religious devotion. Chandra Chiara Ehm lived for nearly a decade behind the walls of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling nunnery in the Nepalese Himalayas. During this time, she collected the nuns’ stories and studied their lifestyle and their scholarship. This book invites the reader to step through the convent’s walls to explore Tibetan monastic life from the perspective of the nuns.
Another important theme Ehm depicts is the religious hierarchy and the remarkable changes that globalisation, feminism, and secularisation have brought to this gender balance and the nuns’ monastic life in recent years. This vivid and comprehensive study of female monastic life provides novel insights with essential implications for the inter- and intra-religious analysis of monasticism today.
Available from Bookshop here: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4863/9789937733380
Available from Amazon here: https://amzn.to/4ctVty9
“108 Exile Tibetan Visual Artists and Their Expression of Universal Responsibility and The Environment” By Whiteline Graphics
This publication is from Whiteline Graphics, an initiative by brothers Jamyang Tenzin and Tsering Namgyal and was launched in Dharamsala on July 3, 2024. The curated book titled “108 Exile Tibetan Visual Artists and Their Expression of Universal Responsibility and The Environment” is a postcard edition book uniting 108 artists to explore universal responsibility and environmental issues, particularly those affecting Tibet.
Inspired by the Dalai Lama’s dedication to peace and ecological preservation, the initiative presents diverse perspectives and shared goals through each artwork, highlighting the crucial link between humanity and the planet. Additionally, this project spotlights numerous visual artists within Tibetan communities who are often underrated and undervalued. The WhiteLine list of 108 exile Tibetan visual artists showcases a portion of this talent, fostering a vibrant and sustainable future for Tibetan heritage.
Find out more about Whiteline Graphics via their Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whiteline_graphics/
“Singer of the Land of Snows: Shabkar, Buddhism, and Tibetan National Identity” By Rachel H. Pang
Published by the University of Virginia Press in February 2024, “Singer of the Land of Snows” is a major study of Shabkar, an important Buddhist leader.
From the publisher’s website:
Shabkar (1781–1851), the “Singer of the Land of Snows,” was a renowned yogi and poet who, through his autobiography and songs, developed a vision of Tibet as a Buddhist “imagined community.” By incorporating vernacular literature, providing a narrative mapping of the Tibetan plateau, reviving and adapting the legend of Tibetans as Avalokiteśvara’s chosen people, and promoting shared Buddhist values and practices, Shabkar’s concept of Tibet opened up the discursive space for the articulation of modern forms of Tibetan nationalism.
Employing analytical lenses of cultural nationalism and literary studies, Rachel Pang explores the indigenous epistemologies of identity, community, and territory that predate contemporary state-centric definitions of nation and nationalism in Tibet and provides the definitive treatment of this foundational figure.
Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3XdFgZj
“Tibetan Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, Volumes I & II” Edited by Matthew T. Kapstein
Published simultaneously in March 2024 by Cornell University Press, “Tibetan Manuscripts and Early Printed Books” are two volumes in which Matthew T. Kapstein and an international team of specialists provide a comprehensive introduction to the material and aesthetic features of the wide range of Tibetan books, described in detail and illustrated with full-color photographs.
From the Cornell University Press website:
With a documented history of over thirteen centuries, Tibetan books have long served as a medium of culture and learning throughout Central and East Asia. Major collections of Tibetan manuscripts and printed books—for Tibetan works were put into print even before the age of Gutenberg—are found in libraries and museums far from the traditional centers of Tibetan learning. Yet the history, production, and design of these works remain poorly understood.
The first volume includes contributions by Michela Clemente, Brandon Dotson, Amy Heller, Agnieszka Helman-Ważny, Karl E. Ryavec, Sam van Schaik, Hanna Schneider, and Jeff Wallman. The second volume is authored by Helmut Tauscher, Cathy Cantwell, Rob Mayer, Hanna Schneider, Peter Schwieger, Charles Ramble, Petra Maurer, Stacey Van Vleet, Ricardo Canzio, Vesna Wallace and Jan-Ulrich Sobisch.
Volume I on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3XeEc7x
Volume II on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4dyAEmi
“The Life and Work of Auleshi: Sherpa Buddhist Artist and Adept” By Ngawang Tengye, Hugh R. Downs, Matthew T. Kapstein with translations by Tib Shelf
Published in April 2024 by Vajra Books, “The Life and Work of Auleshi: Sherpa Buddhist Artist and Adept” is a biography of the Sherpa Buddhist monk Ngawang Leksh (1913–1983), familiarly known as Auleshi.
From the Vajra Books website:
At once an accomplished artist and a yogi living always in retreat, he eschewed the trappings of a “Buddhist master” but taught instead through his art and, above all, his personal example. In this, he embodied the ideal of transmitting the Dharma without teaching a word. As we honor the hundred-and-tenth anniversary of his birth, and fortieth since his death, with those who knew him now few, it seems appropriate to make available to all what may be recalled of his life and work.
The book includes a brief history of Buddhism among the Sherpa, with new information gleaned from Tibetan written sources, the biography of Auleshi (1913-1983), in both Tibetan and annotated English translation, and a selection of reproductions of his paintings and drawings.
Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3WMb5XP
Available on Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4863/9789937624350
“The Words and World of Ge bcags Nunnery: Tantric Meditation in Context” By Elizabeth McDougal
Published in February 2024 by Brill as part of their Tibetan Studies Library series, “The Words and World of Ge bcags Nunnery” by Elizabeth Mcdougal is a study of Ge bcags (Gebchak) dgon pa, founded in 1892 in Nang chen, Khams. It is still active today with around 250 nuns practising intensive Vajrayāna rituals, yogas and meditation.
From the Brill website:
The nuns’ knowledge goal is embodied, nonconceptual awareness, yet they spend many hours daily reading texts as part of their training. By investigating the whole context of the nuns’ lifeworld and ways of learning, this ethnography questions the role of reading in Ge bcags’ tacit knowledge tradition. At a time when Tibetan learning practices are quickly modernising, this book demonstrates a Buddhist tradition whose textual knowledge is not exactly literal, but cultivated through continuous, whole person learning.
Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Ascprw
Younger Audiences
“The Little Bear’s Family” By Rinchen Tara
The second bilingual children’s book by Rinchen Tara follows the adventures of a Little Bear (Thomtruk) living in a multigenerational household with his parents, grandparents, and sibling. This family structure is prevalent in Tibetan culture, and the book offers a glimpse into Thomtruk’s family.
Find out more via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/little_yak_studio/
Four Short Stories Published by The Munsel
སྒྲུང་ཐུང་གནས་ལུགས་ཟབ།, translated as Collections of Stories with Morals, is a collection of 4 short stories, each delivering a heartfelt message of Friendship, Compassion, Kindness, and Courage to face the truth.
Available via The Munsel website: https://themunsel.com/products/munsel-childrens-book
Four Titles Published by The Tibetan Arts and Literature Initiative (TALI)
Four new Tibetan language titles, Norbu Nyima went to Lhasa, Ten Precious Yaks, Nursery Rhymes and The Three Princess Who Loved Music all available for free download: https://talitibet.org/books/
Special Mentions
“At the Edge of Empire” By Edward Wong
“A History of Uyghur Buddhism” By Johan Elverskog
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4863/9780231215251
“China’s Camel Country: Livestock and Nation-Building at a Pastoral Frontier ” By Thomas White
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/4863/9780295752433
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