Tibet offered – until China brought it to a brutal end – a way of life which, by the final test of human contentment, seems to have been uniquely successful. For the Tibetan Way, existing alongside the more esoteric aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, provided guidance and consolation at every level of life.
This remarkable account of a land where history, religion and everyday life are interwoven as nowhere else is the joint work of the elder brother of the present Dalai Lama (himself formerly the Abbot of a great Tibetan monastery) and a distinguished European anthropologist.