Tibet in 1938-1939: Photographs from the Ernst Schäfer Expedition to Tibet

This volume presents 150 photographs, most published here for the first time, of the famous (and infamous) Schäfer Expedition. In 1938, the German biologist Ernst Schäfer led a scientific expedition to Tibet. His team of scientists was able to record Tibetan life and culture with a level of detail previously unachieved by other Europeans. The photographs in this volume are one part of that record, documenting a vibrant traditional society in the early stages of its encounter with modernity. The Tibetans in the photographs, from high aristocrat to humble peasant, are now dead. Many of the temples and buildings where they worshipped, worked, and lived have been destroyed. This volume of photographs, and the essays that accompany them, portray a Tibet that existed not so long ago, but that has since become a memory.