Lhasa in the Seventeenth Century ─ The Capital of the Dalai Lamas

The 17th century witnessed the rise of the power of the Dalai Lamas and the development of Lhasa as the political, economic, and cultural capital of Tibet. Pommaret (National Center for Scientific Research, France) presents twelve chapters that collectively explore the world of the city of Lhasa. Among the topics are the political reunification of Tibet, the religion of the Dalai Lamas, Tibet's foreign relations, economic trade, the architecture of the great monuments, religious pilgrimage to the city, and the lives of scholars and artists. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Francoise Pommaret, Ph.D. (1987) is an ethno-historian at the CNRS, Paris, lecturer at the National institute of Oriental and African Studies (INALCO), Paris and advisor for History and Anthropology at the Institute of Language and Culture at the Royal University of Bhutan. She has been associated with Bhutan in different capacities since 1979 and has published numerous scholarly articles and books. She was the co-editor and co-author ofBhutan: mountain fortress of the gods,(London, 1997) and the editor of Lhasa in the seventeenth century, (Brill, Leiden 2003).John Ardussi, Ph.D. (1977) in Asian Civilizations, Australian National University (Canberra), is a private scholar specializing in Tibetan and Bhutanese history, and an affiliate member of the CNRS research team 'Centre de recherche sur les civilisations chinoise, japonaise et tibetaine.' In addition, he is a professional engineer in the aviation electronics industry. His present research focuses on 16th - 20th century Himalayan history, traditional technologies and economics. He has written numerous articles on the history of Bhutan and Tibet and is completing a translation of the 4th Druk Desi Tenzin Rabgye's biography.