1946 Portrait of Dalai Lama

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Publishers' Original Binding, With Dustwrapper

The first edition of this fascinating study on the spiritual figure of the Dalai Lama, narrated by Sir Charles bell, the first white man to be allowed into Lhasa, capital of Tibet in 1920. He spent over twenty years as a British resident, acting as the Dalai Lama political adviser at the invitation of the Tibetan Government. 

It is thanks to his unique perspective that he was able not only to study the Dalai Lama as a the head or a religion, but also as a man and a ruler. This book has many interesting and detailed information, with a sense of Tibet and its people that feels vivid and real with its mountains and customs, the fortress-palace of the Dalai Lama, and all the little details on the religious beliefs and practices of its inhabitants.

This work, published shortly before his death, is the most notable by the author, who produced many writings on Tibet.

In the publisher's original red cloth binding, with decorative gilt to front board and titles stamped in gilt to spine. With frontispiece of the Dalai Lama at the age of thirty-four and forty-nine illustrations, as well as two maps to the endpapers. With unclipped dustwrapper.