Published by Columbia University Press in April 2019, “Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing” by Matthew King tells the story of one Mongolian monk’s efforts to defend Buddhist monasticism in revolutionary times, revealing an unexplored landscape of countermodern Buddhisms beyond old imperial formations and the newly invented national subject.

To be published in early 2019 by Columbia University Press, “The Handsome Monk and Other Stories” by Tsering Dondrup, translated by Christopher Peacock, describes the lives of Tibetans in contemporary China with wit, empathy, and a passionate sense of justice. “The Handsome Monk and Other Stories” brings together short stories from across Tsering Döndrup’s career to create a panorama of […]

High Peaks Pure Earth presents the Summer 2018 Reading List! We’ve updated the previous Winter Reading List to include 26 (!) more titles covering the span of the entire Tibetan Buddhist world. Please note the reading list is best viewed on your computer’s browser, each link opens in a new tab.

Published in July 2018 by Columbia University Press, “Forging the Golden Urn: The Qing Empire and the Politics of Reincarnation in Tibet” by Max Oidtmann looks into the polyglot world of the Qing empire in search of the origins of the golden urn tradition.

As 2017 nears to a close, we’ve updated our Summer reading list to include 13 more titles covering the span of the entire Tibetan Buddhist world. Please note the reading list is best viewed on your computer’s browser, each link opens in a new tab.

Published in November 2017 by Columbia University Press, “Food of Sinful Demons: Meat, Vegetarianism, and the Limits of Buddhism in Tibet” by Geoffrey Barstow explores the tension between Buddhist ethics and Tibetan cultural norms to offer a novel perspective on the spiritual and social dimensions of meat eating.

Published in December 2016 by Columbia University Press, “Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet” by Holly Gayley chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tare Lhamo (1938–2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944–2011), and their passion for reinvigorating Buddhism in eastern Tibet during the post-Mao era.

Published in April 2016 by Columbia University Press as part of their Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute series, “Ethnic Conflict and Protest in Tibet and Xinjiang: Unrest in China’s West” by Ben Hillman and Gray Tuttle (eds.) is a volume of essays examining the roots of political tensions in Tibet and Xinjiang.