"O NOBLY-BORN… THE FIERCE WIND OF KARMA, TERRIFIC AND HARD TO ENDURE, WILL DRIVE THEE ONWARDS, FROM BEHIND, IN DREADFUL GUSTS": FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, 1927

EVANS-WENTZ, Walter Yelling, editor. The Tibetan Book of the Dead or The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane. London: Oxford University Press/Humphrey Milford, 1927. Octavo, original gilt-stamped green cloth, top edge gilt.

First edition in English of this essential Buddhist text, "the importance of [which] cannot be overstated" (ANB), illustrated with five plates, in original cloth-gilt.

American scholar Walter Evans-Wentz became fascinated with Buddhism during his adolescence. His initial focus was on comparative religion. Evans-Wentz secured degrees from Stanford, Rennes, and Oxford while studying religions including Hinduism, Gnostic Christianity, Celtic beliefs, and, of course, Tibetan Buddhism. In 1917, Evans-Wentz embarked on a journey to the East, hoping to track down prominent religious thinkers. Then, in 1919, during his study in India, "he met Kazi Dawa-Samdup, the headmaster of Gangtok School in Sikkim, who had completed an English translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Although there is no evidence that Evans-Wentz had anything more than a rudimentary knowledge of the Tibetan language, if that, he became a disciple of Kazi Dawa-Samdup, and the two men worked jointly to produce an English-language edition of this important Tibetan Buddhist text… The importance of Evans-Wentz's joint publications cannot be overstated. His work was of pioneering importance in bringing to Western scholarship the previously unavailable texts of the Tantric Buddhist tradition, and although his primary resource person (Kazi Dawa-Samdup) died in 1922, he was able to continue on in conjunction with other Tibetan scholars. As such, The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1927), Tibet's Great Yogi, Milarepa (1928), Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines (1935), and The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation (1954) are still critical for the study of the Tibetan tradition. These works rose to almost cult status during the 1960s and thereafter, when Western scholars and students alike became fascinated with Asian culture in general and Tibet in particular and as consciousness expansion through a variety of means became fashionable. Despite their acceptance by nonscholars, however, the impact of these volumes for serious study of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition should not be minimized. Rick Fields notes: 'It was Evans-Wentz's greatest achievement to be one of the first to … identify Tibetan Buddhism as the culmination of the Buddhist path' (How the Swans Came to the Lake, p. 287)" (ANB). Translated by Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup. Contemporary owner signature of George Douglas, possibly the prominent Scottish Episcopalian priest and chaplain to the British Armed Forces.

Interior generally fine, mild toning to spine. A near-fine copy.