1956 Oracles and Demons of Tibet

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Publishers' Original Binding, Scarce

The first detailed study of Tibetan deities and cults, conducted by Czech ethnologist and Tibetologist Réne De Nebesky-Wojkowitz.

The scarce first edition of this work. 

The author devoted his life to the study of Tibetan and Mongolian ethnology at the universities of Berlin and Vienna, and specialised in Tibetan studies. In 1950 he travelled to Kalimpong, West Bengal, and stayed there for about three years. During his stay, he accessed many texts on protector deities and had the chance to learn from the council of Tibetan scholars who sought refuge during the Chinese incursion.

Réne De Nebesky died of pneumonia in 1959 at the age of 36. Because of the young age at which he died, the Tibetan Buddhist community believed that he was killed by the wrath of the protector deities he actively studied.

This volume is a very important work which gave foundational studies of Tibetan protector deities and cults, essential to the understanding of cultures and indispensable to those dealing with the same topic.