Author(s): Thomas Neuhaus

History

Tibet in the Western Imagination offers a highly readable account of Western writings about Tibet and the Himalayas from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, situating them within a transnational framework. Focusing on British and German sources, it examines how Tibet became a blank canvas on which Europeans could paint their fantasies and fears about developments in the West and across the globe. Comments on the 'forbidden city' of Lhasa, the Dalai Lama, mountaineering on the 'roof of the world' and on ordinary Tibetans often explicitly revealed their authors' thoughts about much wider issues. In the late nineteenth century many travellers were convinced of the superiority of Western rationalism, courage and Christianity. This changed rapidly during the 1920s and 1930s, as they wrote much more frequently about the negative aspects of Western 'civilization', such as modern warfare, urbanization and environmental degradation. Tibet, in turn, began to be represented as a place of great wisdom and truth.