Tibetan printing : comparisons, continuities and change /

This wonderfully edited volume marks yet another great achievement for "Brill's Tibetan Studies Library" series. Spanning all aspects of Tibetan culture, this series often makes its strongest connections to works dealing with the religious landscape. Tibetan Printing, though an excellent example of Tibetology, treats religious texts only as they relate to the dissemination of print as a driver for cultural development. The essayists contributing to the work take a comparative look at the relation between the cultural boom caused by printing in Europe and its less-often researched Asian counterpart; the first section discusses early instances of the history of printing in the East and South Asia. Contributors then look at the middle history of printing and textual dissemination, examining teachers and philosophical schools of thought that utilized print to drive the dissemination of a particular religious perspective. Authors in the book's final chapters investigate the material culture of the printed word and its significance. Grand in both scope and depth, this text is not for casual readers. Students of Tibetology, material culture, and literary history will be excited by this offering, but for the broader field of religious studies, the text is appropriate mainly for advanced scholars. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students; researchers/faculty; professionals/practitioners. --Nicholas Alexander Weiss, Naropa University