USD $188.00
An Atlas of the Tibetan Plateau
Series: - Brill's Tibetan Studies Library, Volume: 50
Author:
- Browse an
online sample copy of the Atlas.
- Read an interview with author Michael Farmer.
- Download sample map 30.
- Download sample map 78.
The Atlas shows for the first time the contemporary geography of the entire Tibetan Plateau, an area where major powers (China, India and Pakistan) meet in the highest landscape on earth, originally inhabited by the unique, ancient Buddhist civilization of Tibet.
Using extensive satellite imagery, the author has accurately positioned over two thousand religious locations, more than a third of which appear not to have not been previously recorded. Nearly two thousand settlements have also been accurately located and all locations are named in both Tibetan and Chinese where possible. This ancient landscape is shown in contrast to the massive physical infrastructure which has been recently imposed on it as an attempt to “Open up the West” and carry forward the Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative”. With 120 maps in full colour.
- Read an interview with author Michael Farmer.
- Download sample map 30.
- Download sample map 78.
The Atlas shows for the first time the contemporary geography of the entire Tibetan Plateau, an area where major powers (China, India and Pakistan) meet in the highest landscape on earth, originally inhabited by the unique, ancient Buddhist civilization of Tibet.
Using extensive satellite imagery, the author has accurately positioned over two thousand religious locations, more than a third of which appear not to have not been previously recorded. Nearly two thousand settlements have also been accurately located and all locations are named in both Tibetan and Chinese where possible. This ancient landscape is shown in contrast to the massive physical infrastructure which has been recently imposed on it as an attempt to “Open up the West” and carry forward the Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative”. With 120 maps in full colour.
Michael Farmer is a retired architect who has been involved with Tibetan culture for many years. His maps have appeared in many publications, including the
Nyingmapa School of Tibetan Buddhism, (Wisdom, 1991) and the
Tibet Handbook (Footprint, 1996) and among other projects he has recently created a unique, large computer-generated three dimensional
Map of Tibet for the Museo di Arte e Cultura Orientale (Arcidosso, 2019). He has designed several Tibetan gonpas, including the major
lhakhang of Shechen Monastery in Nepal.
"After the publication of A Historical Atlas of Tibet by Ryavec, I thought that the final word on the historical cartography of Tibet had definitely been written: I was wrong! The commitment to write another work dedicated to the current state of the Tibetan plateau withmore research and database constructionhas been fulfilled by architect and cartographer Michael Farmer, who has been involved with Tibetan culture for many years. With this magnum opus, which took decades to complete, he has compiled an essential reference work warmly welcomed by scholars and students interested in learning about contemporary Tibet as well as spiritual practitioners (...)." -Giorgio Dallorto,
The Mirror 157 · September 2022.
" An Atlas of the Tibetan Plateau is a masterful melding of science and art created by British architect and cartographer Michael Farmer. Based on extensive contemporary data painstakingly woven from satellite imagery, the intrepid and apparently indefatigable Mr. Farmer has, over decades, produced a unique and indispensable reference work.(...) An Atlas of the Tibetan Plateau by Michael Farmer is a spectacular achievement, deserving of our attention, appreciation, and grateful support." - Constance Wilkinson, Comparative Civilizations Review 90:1 (2024).
"In short, the Atlas is an important and handsome contribution to Tibetan Studies, which should help to stimulate further study of contemporary Tibet. For all scholars of Tibetan literature and culture, the book will doubtless remain an essential reference work for generations to come." - Cathy Cantwell, Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no. 70, Avril 2024.
" An Atlas of the Tibetan Plateau is a masterful melding of science and art created by British architect and cartographer Michael Farmer. Based on extensive contemporary data painstakingly woven from satellite imagery, the intrepid and apparently indefatigable Mr. Farmer has, over decades, produced a unique and indispensable reference work. (...) Through Farmer’s work, a detailed understanding of the characteristic geography of this remote region is available for the very first time, with a potential to enlighten and inspire a wide readership. (...) Indeed, a plethora of socio-political and scientific ramifications can be inferred from the information collected here that affects us all, due to glacial warming and desertification harming a complex system which affects billions of people in countries downstream of its water sources. Farmer’s Atlas belongs in the hands of cartographers, bibliophiles, librarians, comparative civilization-ists, policy wonks, international relations gurus, international-boundary negotiating diplomatists, anthropologists, archaeologists, Tibetologists, Sinologists, revisionists, visionaries, climate change theorists, students, teachers, free-lance curmudgeons, and even adventurous CCP cadres on holiday in a mysterious, exotic tourist destination, a region recently re-named, “Shangri-La.” (...) Almost impossible to put down, this Atlas turns out to be, well, not a pot-boiler but an actual page-turner, thus achieving a wondrous star quality this reviewer had not previously associated with atlas-reading." - Isobel L. on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tibetan-Plateau-Brills-Studies-Library/dp/900446252X#customerReviews.
" An Atlas of the Tibetan Plateau is a masterful melding of science and art created by British architect and cartographer Michael Farmer. Based on extensive contemporary data painstakingly woven from satellite imagery, the intrepid and apparently indefatigable Mr. Farmer has, over decades, produced a unique and indispensable reference work.(...) An Atlas of the Tibetan Plateau by Michael Farmer is a spectacular achievement, deserving of our attention, appreciation, and grateful support." - Constance Wilkinson, Comparative Civilizations Review 90:1 (2024).
"In short, the Atlas is an important and handsome contribution to Tibetan Studies, which should help to stimulate further study of contemporary Tibet. For all scholars of Tibetan literature and culture, the book will doubtless remain an essential reference work for generations to come." - Cathy Cantwell, Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no. 70, Avril 2024.
" An Atlas of the Tibetan Plateau is a masterful melding of science and art created by British architect and cartographer Michael Farmer. Based on extensive contemporary data painstakingly woven from satellite imagery, the intrepid and apparently indefatigable Mr. Farmer has, over decades, produced a unique and indispensable reference work. (...) Through Farmer’s work, a detailed understanding of the characteristic geography of this remote region is available for the very first time, with a potential to enlighten and inspire a wide readership. (...) Indeed, a plethora of socio-political and scientific ramifications can be inferred from the information collected here that affects us all, due to glacial warming and desertification harming a complex system which affects billions of people in countries downstream of its water sources. Farmer’s Atlas belongs in the hands of cartographers, bibliophiles, librarians, comparative civilization-ists, policy wonks, international relations gurus, international-boundary negotiating diplomatists, anthropologists, archaeologists, Tibetologists, Sinologists, revisionists, visionaries, climate change theorists, students, teachers, free-lance curmudgeons, and even adventurous CCP cadres on holiday in a mysterious, exotic tourist destination, a region recently re-named, “Shangri-La.” (...) Almost impossible to put down, this Atlas turns out to be, well, not a pot-boiler but an actual page-turner, thus achieving a wondrous star quality this reviewer had not previously associated with atlas-reading." - Isobel L. on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tibetan-Plateau-Brills-Studies-Library/dp/900446252X#customerReviews.
Tibetologists, geographers, those studying the history of Tibetan Buddhism.