Kailash - Guge

Tibetan Temples for the Gods of India

Martin Thöni (Autor)

Buch

376 Seiten

2018
Weishaupt, H (Verlag)
978-3-7059-0515-3 (ISBN)

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West Tibet´s uniqueness is the result of the combination of overwhelming natural landscapes and a perceptible spiritual atmosphere. This part of the Tibetan Plateau is the true "Land of the Gods", for here is located the divine Mt. Kailash. Since time immemorial the followers of four religious communities worship this mountain as their holiest spiritual "centre": Bön-pos, Jains, Hindus and Buddhists. Here was, and still is, the place of the gods of Tibet and of India. The first section of Part I of the present volume is devoted, both in text and illustration, to Mt. Kailash, with the historical-mythological viewpoint and its relationship to the Vedic-Hinduistic cultural realm on the Indian subcontinent being especially stressed. Thereafter, the reader, following the Sutlej River (one of the "four waters of Kailash") westward, reaches the sunken kingdom of Guge, widely dominated by the beige-yellowish deposits of a huge prehistoric lake gleaming in the bright light of the sun. Following the footsteps of the Italian scholar Giuseppe Tucci, the journey continues through the fantastic canyon landscape of that prehistoric Lake Zanda, laying bare a veritable treasure chest of that unique Indo-Tibetan Tantric art, which in rudimentary form is still preserved in the centres of the former kingdom, the temples of Tsaparang and Tholing.
The shorter, second part of the book deals with the latest findings and discoveries from archaeological and geologic research. Aspects of the pre-Buddhist, so-called "prehistoric" West Tibet are discussed, as well as the development of the greater Indo-Tibetan Region during the distant past; for this, perspectives of both natural science as well as of the divine Veda are taken into account.
376 pages with 530 photos and illustrations. With image contributions dealing with the temple frescoes in Guge by Jürgen C. Aschoff and Hans Först.
English translation from the original German by Henry M. Lieberman.
Expanded English version of the 2016 German edition.
"Only mankind has the power to destroy the Earth.
Birds and rabbits cannot do so.
Yet if mankind has the power to destroy the Earth,
then it also has the power
to save it from destruction."
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize)

Martin Thöni was born in 1947 in Langtaufers/Graun (Vinschgau Region, South Tyrol); he is by profession a geologist / geochronologist (a retired professor of the University of Vienna, Austria). Ever since his first contact with India and Tibet, in the course of field work in Kulu-Lahaul (Himachal Pradesh, India) for his doctoral thesis in 1972–1973, he has deeply studied the cultures and the complex spiritual and religion-based world views of the inhabitants of the Indo-Tibetan region. Beginning in 1977, he has undertaken ten further field campaigns and journeys to a variety of Tibetan areas (including three to Mt. Kailash) and of the Himalayas (India, Nepal, Bhutan); these sojourns progressively increased his awareness of the diversity of the natural and cultural realms surrounding the highest mountain range and plateau of Earth. In the course of the past ten years the author also paid repeated visits to significant cultural centres and temple cities in North, Central and South India.

Erscheinungsdatum	20.07.2018
Zusatzinfo	color photos and illustrations
Verlagsort	Gnas
Sprache	englisch
Maße	250 x 325 mm
Gewicht	2500 g
Themenwelt	Reisen ► Bildbände ► Asien
Schlagworte	Bön-pos • Buddhism • China • Hinduism • India • Jains • Tibet
ISBN-10	3-7059-0515-5 / 3705905155
ISBN-13	978-3-7059-0515-3 / 9783705905153
Zustand	Neuware