Fortress Monasteries of the Himalayas

Fortress Monasteries of the Himalayas PDF Author: Peter Harrison
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1849083975
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
The spread of Buddism and Tibetan secular power throughout the Himalayas led to a distinctive style of fortifications not found anywhere else. This book looks at Himalayan fortifications, from their creation in the Middle Ages to their destruction and capture by the Chinese in the 20th century.

Fortress Monasteries of the Himalayas

Fortress Monasteries of the Himalayas PDF Author: Peter Harrison
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1849083975
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
The spread of Buddism and Tibetan secular power throughout the Himalayas led to a distinctive style of fortifications not found anywhere else. This book looks at Himalayan fortifications, from their creation in the Middle Ages to their destruction and capture by the Chinese in the 20th century.

Fortress Monasteries of the Himalayas

Fortress Monasteries of the Himalayas PDF Author: Peter Harrison
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9781849083966
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Buddhism has been influential in the mountain kingdoms of the Himalayas since the 7th century AD, most notably in the kingdom of Tibet where it permeated all aspects and levels of society until the 20th century. From the 9th-century AD onwards, the secular rulers of Tibet sought to extend their influence, and that of Buddhism, throughout the region. To this end, huge stone and mud-brick fortifications, known as dzongs, were constructed to dominate the secular landscape, while massive Buddhist monasteries dominated the religious - both following a very specific style of Tibetan architecture. It has been estimated that as many as 3,000 monasteries were built along with 200 dzongs. Mongol invasions from the 12th century onwards provided another influence, while internecine fighting in the 17th century led to increased fortification of the monasteries and the rise of the Dalai Lama as the head of a theocracy in Tibet, centred on the Potala Palace in Lhasa - a true fusion between secular dzong and religious monastery. Elsewhere in the Tibetan-influenced Himlayas the Buddhist Indian Kashmiri kingdom of Ladakh withstood assaults by both Muslims and Sikhs and developed a style of fortress monastery located on rocky peaks for defence, these often became combined with the fortified palaces of the rulers of Ladakh. With the foundation of Bhutan in the 17th century, further fortified monasteries were created in an effort to protect the new state's independence form the Dalai Lama. These fortifications have survived largely intact through today, as Chinese control over the Tibetan Autonomous Region has led to the destruction of the vast majority of the fortified monasteries and dzongs of that particular area. This title recreates the dramatic and colorful fortifications created in these mountain kingdoms, and recounts their operational history through the foreign incursions, religious conflicts and civil wars that litter their history, right through to the Tibetan uprising and flight of the Dalai Lama form the Potala Palace in 1959

The Himalayas

The Himalayas PDF Author: M.S. Kohli
Publisher: Indus Publishing
ISBN: 9788173871078
Category : Hiking
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description


So Close to Heaven

So Close to Heaven PDF Author: Barbara Crossette
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
A travelogue of Bhutan and its neighbors in the Himalayas that introduces readers to a world that has emerged from the middle ages only to find itself peering into the abyss of modernity. "For anyone with a serious interest in Buddhism, it's essential reading" (Washington Post Book World). For more than a thousand years Tibet, Sikkim, Ladakh, and Bhutan were the santuaries of Tantric Buddhism. But in the last half of this century, geopolitics has scoured the landscape of the Himalayas, and only the reclusive kingdom of Bhutan remains true to Tantric Buddhism.

International Encyclopaedia Of Himalayas (5 Vols. Set)

International Encyclopaedia Of Himalayas (5 Vols. Set) PDF Author: Ramesh Chandra Bisht
Publisher: Mittal Publications
ISBN: 9788183242653
Category : Himalaya Mountains Region
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
The highest mountain range on Earth, the Himalayas from the northern border of the Indian subcontinent in Asia. The mountains extend in a massive arc for about 1,550 miles from west to east with more than 30 peaks rising to heights greater than 24,000 feet above sea level. Together the Himalayan mountain system is the planet's highest and home to all fourteen of the word's highest peaks. One of the high biodiversity regions of the world, it provides shelter to a large variety of flora and fauna. The Himalayan region has a rich and unique cultural heritage, and has managed to preserve its established traditions throughout history whilst absorbing customs, traditions and ideas from both invaders and immgirants. Many cultural practices, languages, customs and monuments are examples of this co-mingling over centuries.

An Atlas of the Himalayas by a 19th Century Tibetan Lama

An Atlas of the Himalayas by a 19th Century Tibetan Lama PDF Author: Diana Lange
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004416889
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
Diana Lange's patient investigations have, in this wonderful piece of detective work, solved the mysteries of six extraordinary panoramic maps of routes across Tibet and the Himalayas, clearly hand-drawn in the late 1850s by a local artist, known as the British Library's Wise Collection. Diana Lange now reveals not only the previously unknown identity of the Scottish colonial official who commissioned the maps from a Tibetan Buddhist lama, but also the story of how the Wise Collection came to be in the British Library. The result is both a spectacular illustrated ethnographic atlas and a unique compendium of knowledge concerning the mid-19th century Tibetan world, as well as a remarkable account of an academic journey of discovery. It will entertain and inform anyone with an interest in this fascinating region. This large format book is lavishly illustrated in colour and includes four separate large foldout maps.

Castles of God

Castles of God PDF Author: Peter Harrison
Publisher: Boydell Press
ISBN: 9781843830665
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Throughout history, great faiths have been subjected to persecution and attack from beyond the wall - literally walls, in Peter Harrison's remarkable book of the great monastery-fortresses, and church-fortresses, of the world.

Cold War in the High Himalayas

Cold War in the High Himalayas PDF Author: S Mahmud Ali
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136826483
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
This text examines elite-insecurity perceptions in India, Pakistan and the USA in the 1950s. The book highlights the consequent linkages in alliance-building efforts and the subsequent triangular covert collaboration against Communist China, especially along Tibet's Himalayan frontiers. This secret alliance had an unexpected fall-out on the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. Lastly the book examines the divergence of Indo-Pakistani security policies along fundamental cleavages since the 1960s.

Discoveries in Western Tibet and the Western Himalayas

Discoveries in Western Tibet and the Western Himalayas PDF Author: International Association for Tibetan Studies. Seminar
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004155201
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Recent archaeological discoveries and scientific research especially focussed on western Tibet and the western Himalayas have resulted in a remarkable redefinition of the historical and cultural processes of the entire Indo-Tibetan civilisation. The present volume reflects these sometimes startling new insights for the first time, covering the wide time range from the Zhang zhung period up to the 20th century, spanning secular, religious and economic history, as well as art and archaeology.

The India Magazine of Her People and Culture

The India Magazine of Her People and Culture PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 1112

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Book Description