PREFACE.

No apology is needed for publishing a work on the Buddhism of Tibet—or "Lamaism," as it has been called after its priests—at the present time. Despite the increased attention Buddhism has received in recent years through the theories of Schopenhauer and Hartmann Arthur Schopenhauer and Eduard von Hartmann were German philosophers whose works in the 19th century introduced concepts similar to Buddhist thought, such as "the Will" and philosophical pessimism, to a Western audience., and the widespread desire for more information about the origins and conditions of Eastern religions, there is no European book that provides much insight into the strictly protected religion of Tibet. It is there, in a land shrouded in mystery and romance, that Buddhism now has its primary stronghold.

The only English-language study on this subject is Emil Schlagintweit's Buddhism in Tibet,¹ which was published more than thirty years ago and is now out of print. Although that work was impressive for its time, it was admittedly incomplete, as its author had never actually been in contact with the Tibetan people. Aside from Agostino Antonio Giorgi’s unusual collection from the eighteenth century, the only other European book on Lamaism is Carl Friedrich Köppen’s The Lamaist Hierarchy original: Die Lamaische Hierarchie.

¹ Leipzig and London, 1863. While there is no shortage of various writings on Tibet and Lamaism, as seen in the bibliography in the appendix, these works are all fragmented and often provide conflicting information.