Includes bibliographical references (p. [637]-688) and index.

The prehistory of the Tibetan Plateau to the seventh century A.D. / Mark Aldenderfer and Zhang Yinong -- Some reflections on the periodization of Tibetan history / Bryan J. Cuevas -- History as a myth: on the appropriation of the past in Tibetan culture / Peter Schweiger -- Remarks on the Mani Kabum and the cult of Avalokiteâsvara in Tibet / Matthew T. Kapstein -- On the Tibetan historiography and doxography of the "great debate of Samyâe" / David Seyfort Ruegg -- The linguistic and historical setting of the old Tibetan inscriptions / Fang Kuei Li and W. South Coblin -- The Tibetans in the Ordos and north China: considerations on the role of Tibetan empire in world history / Christopher I. Beckwith -- The Tibetan tribes of Hexi and Buddhism during the northern song period / Tsutomu Iwasaki -- The rulers of Western Tibet / David Snellgrove -- The Bèon religion of Tibet / Per Kvaerne -- The evolution of monastic power / R. A. Stein -- The preceptor-donor relation in thirteenth-century Tibetan society and polity: its inner Asian precursors and Indian models / David Seyfort Ruegg -- The Mongol census in Tibet / Luciano Petech -- Sakya Paònòdita's letter to the Tibetans: a late and dubious addition to his collected works / David P. Jackson -- The rise of the Pakmodru Dynasty / Luciano Petech -- Monastic patronage in fifteenth-century Tibet / Turrell V. Wylie -- Central Tibetan conflict in the sixteenth century / Giuseppe Tucci -- The He Clan of Hezhou: a Tibetan family in service to the Yuan and Ming Dynasties / Elliot Sperling -- Bèon in central and east Tibet / Samten Karmay -- The Dalai Lamas and the origins of reincarnate lamas / Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp -- The fifth Dalai Lama / Kurtis R. Schaeffer -- Experience, empiricism, and the fortunes of authority: Tibetan medicine and Buddhim on the eve of modernity / Janet Gyatso -- The administration of Tibet during the first half-century of Chinese protectorate / Luciano Petech -- Lobjang Danjin's rebellion of 1723 / Katåo Naoto -- Aristocracy and the government in Tibet: 1728-1959 / Luciano Petech -- Gold, wood, and musk: trade in Lhasa in the seventeenth century / Luce Boulnios -- The circulation of estates in TIbet: reincarnation, land, and politics / Melvyn C. Goldstein -- The geo-history of long-distance trade in Tibet 1850-1950 / Wim van Spengen -- The kingdom of Dergâe / Lauran R. Hartley -- Labrang: a Tibeten Buddhist monastery at the crossroads of four civilizations / Paul Nietupski -- Uniting religion and politics in a bid for autonomy: lamas in exile in China and America / Gray Tuttle -- Progressives and exiles / Heather Stoddard -- The genesis of the Sino-Tibetan agreement of 1951 / Tsering Shakya.