This magnificient collection showed at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum several years ago. In terms of the quality of the thanka paintings, bronzes and ritual items gathered for the exhibit and reproduced in gorgeous full-color detail in this book, it is second only to "Wisdom and Compassion." The latter benefited from a national audience, widespread publicity, and publication of its catalog by the nation's largest art book publisher. By comparison, this handsome volume is almost unknown. The collection includes unflinching depictions of deeply esoteric symbolism found nowhere else. This book is not only a true bargain but also a must-have for anyone interested in Tibetan art. Although I have many more recent books on the subject, this is one I return to again and again, with great joy and appreciation.

While most authors of Tibetan art books confine themselves to the religious art of Tibet, there is another, fantastic, aspect of Tibetan material culture--the luxury goods for the clergy and nobility. Through the good fortune of having been selected as the recipient of a massive collection formed in the early part of the 20th century and augmented by various gifts and purchases over the intervening years, the Newark Museum of Art has accumulate a stunning collection of these kinds of materials. In her catalogue, the curator, Valrae Reynolds and her collaborators, have made a very impressive contribution to knowledge about these objects. Indeed, these objects that she illustrates make the whole Tibetan culture much more alive and vital. Tibetans did not sit around all day and discuss the best way to meditate on some deity or another. Rather, like people all over the world, they tended their herds or crops, traded (all over Central Asia) they even went on picnics using the tents of the type in the catalog. If the potential reader is interested in the whole of Tibetan culture and not just the religion, this book will make the traditional culture clearer and more understandable than any other previous contribution that I am aware of.