Buddhist Symbols in Tibetan Culture

A former spiritual and temporal head of Dragyab State, Khem, East Tibet, who has been a research fellow and lecturer in Tibetan Buddhism for nearly 30 years at the University of Bonn, Dagyab Rinpoche is excellently placed to analyze Buddhist symbols (tendrel) and symbolism in Tibetan culture from both Western and Tibetan perspectives. Unfortunately, an opportunity has been missed. Not only is the interesting concept of chu (or ``essence-juice and vigor'') which informs Tibetan symbolic perception and cultural spirit dropped after the introduction, but the introduction's thought-provoking discussion about methodological parameters for symbol-interpretation is not elaborated either. Indeed, the book is content to list and explicate symbols before trailing off into a wholly inadequate conclusion. This sketchiness is partly offset by the descriptions, many of which have a dictionary-like concision. The book ends with technical apparatus of use only to Tibetan scholars. (Nov.)