Tibet: The Lost Civilisation

Description

Published by Hamish Hamilton, London, 1988, 1st UK Edition, Insc, D/w, Nr. Fine.   This book tells the story of the unveiling of Tibet, virtually unknown and unexplored until the early twentieth century, to the Western world, followed by a series of British Expeditions between the Wars, the ‘discovery’ of Lhasa, the ‘forbidden city’, through to the Chinese invasion in 1950 and the destruction of an entire culture.  It uses as source material the words and pictures of those few outsiders who visited Lhasa up to 1950, including Hugh Richardson, Heinrich Harrer, Freddy Spencer Chapman, Shen Tsung-Lien, James Guthrie, Basil Gould, Charles Bell and Edmund Candler (along with other members of the 1904 Younghusband Mission to Lhasa).  Well illustrated with many contemporary photographs in black-and-white and colour.