"The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia" goes well-and-good into military and alliance history of Central Asia with central concern to Tibet. So, the text is true to its title. Remarked upon are interactions with a number of more local Central Asian tribal groups, but the main players covered are Arabic, Turkish, Chinese and Tibetan. I find this detailed presentation especially interesting due to lack of the usual central focus on Bonpo and Vajrayana cultural and religious topics. Those topics are, of course, major ones for general Tibetan study. But, even if one is more interested in such cultural and religious topics, this work may help ground and round-out such interests. It greatly helps that the author, Christopher Beckwith, is literate in all four of the above language types -- so one is getting precise, reliable and original translilation and interpetation of the relevant historical source texts -- in the most direct way possible nowadays.
By the way, the author is able to show that the origins of Bodish [Tibetan-like] dialects are somewhat complex -- with early Indoeuropean and even possible Germanic inputs -- as this reader already suspected due to some central Tibetan terms that look Indoeuropean or Germanic. The author does remark upon strong Bodish relations to Burmese-type languages -- as one would expect. But, most importantly, it seems Bodish dialects are NOT as close to Chinese-type languages as commonly reckoned. Due to ongoing interaction and later expansion of Chinese-folks with Bodish-folks, including Tibetans, the Bodish dialects eventually have an outer layer of Chinese-type input.
So, despite the seemingly specialized topics of this work -- it is directly relevant to the controversy about whether originally "Tibet" is actually a part of "China" or not. Therefore, it is possibly quite relevant to whether "modern Tibet" somehow "belongs" to "modern China" or not. It would rather seem that both of those peoples have their OWN old, rich and honorable ancestral origins. Furthermore, this singular work shows the central position of the Tibetan Empire, as well as the Arabic, Turkic and Chinese powers -- in the influences on the Silk Road and other Early Medieval overland contact between East and West. Spot-on +++
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Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2009
The definitive book on the Tibetan Empire and it's history in Central Asia but a dull read at times.
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2018Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 1999
Top reviews from other countries
Oliver Smith
An astoundingly-fascinating history of Central Asia in the early middle ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 2, 2015C. J. Smith
Where have the Tibetans gone?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2015
