Pioneer in Tibet: The Life and Perils of Dr. Albert Shelton, by Douglas Wissing. Published by Palgrave Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press, 2004.  A fascinating account of the life of an American missionary who lived in Kham and witnessed some of Kham's turbulent history during the 1910s and 20s. Highly recommended. If you purchase the book through the author's website, proceeds will go to support ours and others' charity work in Tibet.

Tibetan Rescue, by Pamela Logan, about the Kham Aid Foundation art conservation effort at Pewar (Baiya) Monastery. Autographed copies are available from us.

Tibet Handbook (with Bhutan), edited by Gyurme Dorje, published by Passport Books. This sturdy hardcover guidebook has excellent coverage of the eastern Tibetan plateau. Recommended.

Among Warriors: A Martial Artist in Tibet, by Pamela Logan, president and founder of the Kham Aid Foundation. More information about the book is here (use the BACK button to return to this page). You can order an AUTOGRAPHED copy directly from us.

Buddhist Monasteries in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Western Sichuan, China. This is a report prepared by the China Exploration & Research Society following a 1991 architectural survey of 18 monasteries. Copies are available from us.

Tibetan-English Colloguial Primer: Kham Dialect, compiled by George C. Kraft and Tsering Hu Heng, 1996. Published by OMF International, 10 West Dry Creek Circle, Littleton, CO 80120-4413, Tel 303 730-4160. $12.57 per copy plus $3.00 s&h. Audio tapes are also available by writing to ll-dup@socrates.berkeley.edu.

OUT-OF-PRINT TITLES
(but you can try your local used bookstore or an on-line service such as Bibiofind)

The Yangtze and the Yak by Marion Duncan, Ann Arbor, MI: Edwards Bros, Inc, 1952. The adventures of an American missionary and his family, who lived in Kham during the 1920s. Duncan traveled widely in Kham, and was an astute observer of Kham's culture and politics. He also wrote one called Customs and Superstitions of Tibetans.

Cavaliers of Kham: The Secret War in Tibet, by Michel Peissel. Toronto & Vancouver, E.P. Dutton, Inc. This books seems to have been researched entirely outside Tibet, relying on accounts of exiled Tibetans and neglecting Chinese sources.

God's Fool, Doubleday & Co., 1956; Tibet in Revolt, Faber and Faber, 1960; and Journey with Loshay, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954, all by George N. Patterson. He was a missionary living in Kangding (Dartsendo) during the 1940s who witnessed the Khampa resistance movement in its early days. Apart from long, painfully detailed passages about the author's relationship with God, Patterson writes vividly and knowledgably about this place as it was at a turning point in Tibetan history.

China's Far West: Four Decades of Change, by A. Doak Barnett, SMC Publishing, Inc. Taipei 1993 and 1997. This book is an extremely detailed account of the economic and administrative changes in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Yunnan. There are 76 pages devoted to Ganzi prefecture, plus some photos. The field work was conducted in 1988, and is compared with a trip by the author in the 1940s.

Tibetan Marches, by Andre Migot, Rupert Hart-Davis, 36 Soho Square, London, 1955. Describes a trek in 1947 from Chengdu to Qinghai via the northern route through Ganzi, including Dege and Dzogchen, with much colorful detail about the people, monasteries, road conditions, and life under weak Chinese rule.

SEE ALSO

John Studley's list of Kham-related books

The Dokham Home Page

A bibliography of wildlife-related material at the end of this report.