Tibet Art Book
Width: 9.5
Description
Never before has Tibet, ancient and mysterious, been so open to the eyes of Westerners as in this magnificent book. All of that infinitely various land is presented in our sometimes bright, sometimes subtle color illustrations- from Tibet's almost impenetrable wilderness to the heart of its many-centuries-old towns and cities to the solemn halls of its great monasteries packed with matchless, extravagant Buddhist art.
Expressly to take the photographs for this book, eighteen of China's top photographers undertook an epic expedition to all the corners of Tibet. To get our splendid mountain photographs, they climbed icy precipices in the high Himalayas. To reach primitive tribes living in the remotest forest areas, they walked, led by Tibetan guides, for twenty-five days through wild and dangerous terrain. They worked arduously for eight months and came back with some 15,000 photographs which out 237 full-color plates have been chosen.
A team of Tibetan authors, scholars, and people of affairs joined in to comeplete this rich portrait of ther homeland with a text that is at once charming and authentic, a telling account that outsiders could never produce. The give the reader stunning insights into the turbulent and exotic history of Tibet; the geography and amazing potential resources of this highest plateau in the world sitting in the shadows of the world's highest mountains; the unique customs and rituals of Tibet's town dwellers, nomads, and remote herdsmen alike; the role of women in a society where until recently polygamy and polyandry were common; the fascinating age-old ways of life of Tibet's ethnic minorities; the land's unique form of Buddhism, called Lamaism; and Tibet's marvelous palaces and monasteries with theiur frescoes and statues often laden with gold and silver and rich jewels.
Our book is the result of a striking change of policy by the Chinese. After Tibet became part of the People's Republic of China in 1951, the few foreigners admitted there at all were at once drastically limited in where they could go and what they could see and photograph. Now, as an important gesture in their new and welcome cultural opening to the West, the Chinese authorities have allowed and even aided the creation of this beautiful book to let us see Tibet and the Tibetans as they are today, thirty years after the land was almost hermetically sealed off.
Condition
Overall Condition: Used. Good condition.