Traditionally used as a mortuary text, to be read or recited in the presence of the dead or dying, this sacred text - which relates the experience of death and rebirth in three intermediate states of being - was originally understood as a guide not only for the dead but also for the living.
This new edition of a unique, sacred text features a Foreword, Afterword, and suggested further reading list by author Donald S. Lopez, Jr., who traces the history of the late Evans-Wentz's three earlier editions of this book and discusses the volume's influence on the interest in Tibetan culture and religion. 11 halftones and line illustrations.
Dr. Evans-Wentz, who literally sat at the feet of a Tibetan lama for years in order to acquire his wisdom...not only displays a deeply sympathetic interest in those esoteric doctrines so characteristic of the genius of the East, but likewise possesses the rare faculty of making them more or less intelligible to the layman.
