A political and religious history of Tibet, from its entry onto the historical scene in the sixth century right up to the present. The strong focus on religion appears to be partly because Tibetan Buddhism is van Schaik's home discipline, but mostly because the native chronicles tend to focus on the same. Social history is sometimes touched on, economic largely ignored (and largely unknown for most of the period I suspect).

Pretty happy about the book overall, was looking for an overview and it delivers on that front.

excellent overview of the history from the first written sources (600) till almost today. He is an expert on early history and (Budhist) culture of Tibet [ see www.EarlyTibet.com ] but the chapters on modern history are as good as the other ones. ( )