Centuries before weighty tomes such as the Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide became essential packing for Western visitors to Nepal, Lamas and other literate figures in greater Tibet were busy compiling their own religious and cultural guidebooks about the far reaches of their territory.

The genre of scholarly production that can be called 'Tibetan guidebook literature' ranges in quality and interest, but all these travel texts invariably include lists of auspicious and powerful holy places to visit and meditate at while en route. In addition, the more absorbing handbooks include ethnological observations on local cultural traditions and the communities who practice them. One particularly noted example is the Guidebook to Lapchi (extensively studied by anthropologist and Tibetologist Tony Huber), which, according to its colophon, was compiled by a Buddhist monk in 1901.

Guide to the Hidden Land of the Yolmo Snow Enclosure and its History, a 28-page religious travel companion by Khenpo Nyima Dondrup, translated into Nepali by Punya Prasad Parajuli and Padam Singh Gale, and into English by Matthew Akester, is an edited and annotated compilation of a number of Tibetan-language guides to Yolmo (also known as Helambu in Nepali). Although somewhat marred by a shortage of contextual information about the documents that it surveys, the booklet includes a black and white pilgrimage map to the region and 39 colour plates illustrating notable sites, sections on the two major Tibetan Buddhist religious traditions found in the area (Nyingma and Kagyu), a synopsis of the existing guidebooks on the region, a discussion of the Yangdak Chok meditation cave and a list of 33 locally-important religious sites.

Although certainly portable and reasonably priced at Nrs 300, it is not immediately clear for whom this pocketbook was written, other than the well-networked community of English speaking Western Buddhists. Of course, not all books need to be written for a specific readership, but the present Guide seems to fall between categories. However, kudos goes to Vajra Publications for continuing to translate, publish and disseminate such material to a
wider public.

Mark Turin

Guide to the Hidden Land of the Yolmo Snow Enclosure and its History
by Khenpo Nyima Dondrup
Vajra Publications 2010
ISBN: 978-9937-506-465, 28 pp, colour plates, monochrome map

Mark Turin directs the Digital Himalaya and World Oral Literature Projects at the University of Cambridge.