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Karl E. Ryavec, A Historical Atlas of Tibet.
Univ. of Chicago Press, 2015. ISBN 9780226732442 (hb), 9780226243948 (ebook), 202 pp, 49 maps. US$45.
At the outset it must be said that this is a particularly useful work. It offers the reader, both specialist and non-specialist a solid and reliable overview of Tibet's history and it carefully locates important sites and regions over a series of detailed and well-designed maps. Tibet has long suffered from maps created for a variety of purposes, few of which have offered scholars or readers the specific depth or detail they require. Travellers, imperialists, idealists and the ill-informed have all contributed to a messy understanding of Tibet. Karl Ryavec has offered us something quite unique and different. The book covers a period between the prehistoric period (30,000 BC to AD 600) and AD 2000. In addition to the historical maps the author adds others showing among other things, Tibet's trade networks, languages, natural resources, land cover, ethnicity and population. These comprise 12 maps in total and they greatly assist the understanding of the major part of the book, the other 37 maps.
It is the maps which lie at the core of Ryavec's larger undertaking which is to track the flow of Tibet's history in all its complexity and to support his written narrative with appropriate maps which are presented with a surprising detail...