The "Tibetan Question," the nature of Tibet's political status vis-à-vis China, has been the subject of often bitterly competing views while the facts of the issue have not been fully accessible to interested observers. While one faction has argued that Tibet was, in the main, historically independent until it was conquered by the Chinese Communists in 1951 and incorporated into the new Chinese state, the other faction views Tibet as a traditional part ofChina that split away at the instigation of the British after the fall of the Manchu Dynasty and was later dutifully reunited with "New China" in 1951. In contrast, this comprehensive study of modern Tibetan history presents a detailed, non-partisan account of the demise of the Lamaist state. Drawing on a wealth of British, American, and Indian diplomatic records; first-hand-historical accounts written by Tibetan participants; and extensive interviews with former Tibetan officials, monastic leaders, soldiers, and traders, Goldstein meticulously examines what happened and why. He balances the traditional focus on international relations with an innovative emphasis on the intricate web of internal affairs and events that produced the fall of Tibet. Scholars and students of Asian history will find this work an invaluable resource and interested readers will appreciate the clear explanation of highly polemicized, and often confusing, historical events.

编辑推荐：本书详细叙述了1913-1951年西藏上层社会斗争史实，材料翔实，作者在西藏考察两年，访问了定居在印度的藏人和原先西藏任职的英国外交官，收集了丰富的第一手资料，同时作者大量引用了英国外交部档案、伦敦、印度事务部档案和美国国家档案等，剖析了西藏现代史上的重大历史事件产生的原因、发展过程及其影响，为达赖和班禅两大活佛失和、寺院集团和噶厦之间的冲突等。

It was 1994 when Xinran, a journalist and the author of The Good Women of China , received a telephone call asking her to travel four hours to meet an oddly dressed woman who had just crossed the border from Tibet into China. Xinran made the trip and met the woman, called Shu Wen, who recounted the story of her thirty-year odyssey in the vast landscape of Tibet. Shu Wen and her husband had been married for only a few months in the 1950s when he joined the Chinese army and was sent to Tibet for the purpose of unification of the two countries. Shortly after he left she was notified that he had been killed, although no details were given. Determined to find the truth, Shu Wen joined a militia unit going to the Tibetan north, where she soon was separated from the regiment. Without supplies and knowledge of the language, she wandered, trying to find her way until, on the brink of death, she was rescued by a family of nomads under whose protection she moved from place to place with the seasons and eventually came to discover the details of her husband’s death. In the haunting Sky Burial, Xinran has recreated Shu Wen’s journey, writing beautifully and simply of the silence and the emptiness in which Shu Wen was enveloped. The book is an extraordinary portrait of a woman and a land, each at the mercy of fate and politics. It is an unforgettable, ultimately uplifting tale of love loss, loyalty, and survival.

这是一本风格非常新锐另类的藏地旅游文化读本。它以西藏的历史、宗教、文化、民俗，甚至各类象征性地域符号为主线，兼用诗情画意和高僧大德法印作引导，辅之以旅行者原始的留言手札，多方面向读者展示了西藏的奇妙景象。 作为一本独具个性的“原生态”藏地图书，它的精彩之处在于其大量丰富的手绘内容。几年来，国内外各路“游走拨浪运动者”们用不同文字在玛吉阿米手工制作的各种留言簿上留下了五花八门的“Travel Tips”（旅行点滴）：有抒情的、有感悟的、有告白的、有批评的、甚至还有遗书、婚约……其中不乏知名大腕的精妙文图，亦有平常人物的随意涂鸦。一段日记，一张图画，一次旅藏经历，一回藏地恋情，某日某地的历险，某时某刻的N次原野追忆都尽囊其中。《玛吉阿米的留言簿》一书择其趣者而选之，与天下人同享阅读新快感。

M.C.戈尔斯坦是美国著名的人类学家与藏学家。在西方藏学界，他独树一帜，自成一派，为国际藏学的发展作了巨大的贡献。本书是集西方藏学研究之大成，成为其藏学研究的代表作，也是西方研究西藏现代史的权威著作。 本书资料翔实，引证丰富。不仅使用大量的原西藏地方政府的官员回忆录及原始档案，而且使用英印政府、英国及美国政府的大量外交政治档案。后者的征引是目前西方有关西藏现代史研究著作中最为全面、完整与丰富的。另外，作者还相当重视口碑资料，大量征引拉萨街头的政治民谣入史，别开生面，文笔生动。