The Tibetan Book of the Dead

by W. Y. Evans-Wentz

The Tibetan Book of Dead,has taken it to be a very free translation of Bardo Thodol (Liberation by Hearing on the after Death Plane) is among the sacred book of the world. The book is pre-eminent insight into interpretations of higher `lamaic` teachings and of the subtle esortericism underlying the Bardo Thodol. In this Oriental ideas have been put forward in a form which is intelligible to the European mind. The Occidental parallels of various mystic or occult doctrines current in Orient are frequently reffered in this book, becauseauthor`s personal experience gathered during years of wanderings chiefly in the high Himalayas and on the Tibetan frontiers of Kashmir, Garhwa and Sikkim.

About the Author :

Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz was an anthropologist and writer who was a pioneer in the study of Tibetan Buddhism. He travelled extensively, spending time in Mexico, Europe, and the Far East. He spent the years of the First World War in Egypt. He later travelled to Sri Lanka and India, reaching Darjeeling in 1919; there he encountered Tibetan religious texts firsthand.

Evans-Wentz is best known for four texts translated from the Tibetan, especially The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Evans-Wentz credited himself only as the compiler and editor of these volumes. The actual translation of the texts was performed by Tibetan Buddhists. Evans-Wentz was a practitioner of the religions he studied.