Modern Texts
Presenting more than 600 books and texts on life in Tibet and the Himalayas.
Learn about Modern Texts
Modern literature and scholarly research grouped by theme or topic. Modern texts feature poems, pilgrimage guides, short essays, chronologies, summaries, and overviews of topics associated with Tibet and the Himalaya. Some texts include images, tables, diagrams, and other media, and many are labeled with associated subjects, places, or terms so you can explore more about related topics and locations.
Explore Modern Texts
Modern literature and scholarly research grouped by theme or topic. Modern texts feature poems, pilgrimage guides, short essays, chronologies, summaries, and overviews of topics associated with Tibet and the Himalaya. Some texts include images, tables, diagrams, and other media, and many are labeled with associated subjects, places, or terms so you can explore more about related topics and locations.
Featured Modern Texts Collections
Tibetan Monastic Guidebooks
Tibetan and English language surveys of monasteries according to religious tradition and geographical area.
Sera Hermitages
The famed Sera Monastery has many hermitages north of Lhasa that are associated with it. This collection contains essays by José Cabezón that describe 19 hermitages in detail.
Bhutan Cultural Library
This collection contains essays authored by Bhutanese scholars and researchers that describe various genres of oral traditions in Bhutan and other cultural subjects. Each text is linked to relevant places and subjects, so that users can explore the rich tapestry of Bhutanese culture through different media.
Featured Modern Texts
A Survey of Bonpo Monasteries and Temples
An extensive, English language survey of Bön sites in cultural Tibet, Nepal, and India.
An Introduction to Gar
A Tibetan-language history of this region in far western Tibet, authored by the late scholar Tsering Gyalpo.
Brother Hare and Uncle Wolf
Translation of a Tibetan fable about a wolf’s ill-fated encounter with the trickster-figure, Brother Hare.
Introduction to the Ganden Palace Polity
An overview of the history of the Central Tibetan government in Lhasa, also known as the Ganden Palace, which governed from 1642-1959.
Karma Nyadru: The New Year Festival of Dogar Gewog
How one village in western Bhutan ushers in the new year.
The Prophecy of the Superior Maitreya
A recent translation of a text predicting Maitreya’s future enlightenment.