Tibet in the Western imagination
By: by Tom Neuhaus
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9780230299702
Subjects: Travelers' writings, British; British Foreign public opinion; History and criticism; German Foreign public opinion; Travelers' writings, German; Civilization; Public opinion; In literature; History
Description: Tibet in the Western Imagination offers a highly readable account of Western writings about Tibet and the Himalayas from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, situating them within a transnational framework. Focusing on British and German sources, it examines how Tibet became a blank canvas on which Europeans could paint their fantasies and fears about developments in the West and across the globe. Comments on the 'forbidden city' of Lhasa, the Dalai Lama, mountaineering on the 'roof of the world' and on ordinary Tibetans often explicitly revealed their authors' thoughts about much wider issues. In the late nineteenth century many travellers were convinced of the superiority of Western rationalism, courage and Christianity. This changed rapidly during the 1920s and 1930s, as they wrote much more frequently about the negative aspects of Western 'civilization', such as modern warfare, urbanization and environmental degradation. Tibet, in turn, began to be represented as a place of great wisdom and truth --
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part I. Representations, 1853-1904; title: Lifting the veil; title: Knowledge, Ethnography and Orientalism; title: Missionaries and the Evils of "Lamaism"; title: Science and Exploration; title: Part II. Representations, 1904-1947; title: Developing Diplomacy; title: Racial and Social Orders; title: From Religion to Spirituality; title: Mountains and Men; title: Part III. Legacies, 1947-1959; title: Coping with "loss" : Tibet after 1947; title: Conclusion and Epilogue.