Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Description: In the spring of 1938, two young American explorers, Wilbur L. Cummings, Jr. (1914-1943), and F. Bailey Vanderhoef, Jr. (b. 1913) set off on an expedition into Tibet. Leaving from the small Indian hill station of Kalimpong, they crossed the Himalayas – their principal goal, to document the religious art and the famous "lama dances" at the monastery of Palkhor Chödé, located in the city of Gyantsé in western Tibet. Their photos of the yearly festival of the unveiling of the monastery’s famous massive silk tangka appeared in the June 12, 1939 edition of Life magazine, some of the first color images of Tibet to appear in the American popular press. Mr. Vanderhoef later compiled a narrative of the journey. These memoirs, A Glimpse of Another World, along with Mr. Vanderhoef’s extraordinary collection of photographs from the expedition, are here made available to the public for the first time.