Buddhist Himalaya

David Snellgrove, Ph. D., D. Litt., was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1968. For a five year period he was Consultant for Buddhism at the then newly established Vatican Secretariat for non-Christian Religions. The author of numerous books and articles on Himalayan and Southeast Asian religions, he has been widely recognized for his extensive contributions to Asian scholarship.

This book, a revised edition of one of this renowned scholar's primary early works, describes the various developments in Tibetan Buddhism from earliest times to its present form. It is therefore a history of a rather special kind, in that it shows the evolution of Buddhism primarily from the Tibetan perspective. Since Tibetan Buddhism is largely of Indian origin, the account is mainly one of past cultural contacts between India and Tibet, either directly or with Nepal as an intermediary. It is in the Himalayan regions that we must seek the cultural and archaeological traces of past contacts, and here also that we meet with the active influence of Tibetan religions in districts that have turned to the Tibetans for guidance, now that Buddhism has all but disappeared in the land of its origins.
In an updated preface, the author draws attention to changes in interpretation and perspective that have quite properly taken place over the intervening years.
While the substance of an account of this kind must be sound research, the inspiration has been provided by Dr. Snellgrove's own travels in these remote regions. A new addendum provides fascinating insight into details of the author's historic first travels into these areas in 1953.