The Buddhist Trail in Himachal takes the traveler through the magnificent landscape of the world s youngest mountains sheltering some of its oldest monasteries. From the near perfect beauty of Lower Kinnaur to the austere splendour of Lahaul-Spiti, this highly visual guidebook charts both the majesty of the setting and the strength of spirit and faith that has allowed for habitation, and travel, here.

This is a detailed account of one of the earliest surviving Buddhist temples in western Himalaya. Thakur draws on architectural developments, sculptures, murals, and inscriptions to chart its evolution from AD 99 to AD 1996.

This Book Is A Comprehensive Study Of The Rise And Development Of Buddhism In A Broader Spatio-Temporal Context Of The Western Trans-Himalayan Rergion Since Its Nascent Days In India.

An attempt has been made in this work to project a descriptive account of nearly three hundred religious edifices belonging to different period of Indian history in the twelve districts of the state,arranged in a chronological order,also classifying them in (i) Sakti temples,(ii) Siva temples,(iii)Vaishnava temples and (iv) Temples of the other deities.

At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. The Monastery Rules discusses the position of the monasteries in pre-1950s Tibetan Buddhist societies and how that position was informed by the far-reaching relationship of monastic Buddhism with Tibetan society, economy, law, and culture. Jansen focuses her study on monastic guidelines, or bca’ yig. The first study of its kind to examine the genre in detail, the book contains an exploration of its parallels in other Buddhist cultures, its connection to the Vinaya, and its value as socio-historical source-material. The guidelines are witness to certain socio-economic changes, while also containing rules that aim to change the monastery in order to preserve it. Jansen argues that the monastic institutions’ influence on society was maintained not merely due to prevailing power-relations, but also because of certain deep-rooted Buddhist beliefs.