This book explores two kinds of self-presentation in Tibet and the Tibetan diaspora: that of British writers in their travel texts to Tibet from 1774 to 1910 and that of Tibetans in recent autobiographies in English. McMillin argues that Tibet and the Anglophone West have had a long, complex, and convoluted relationship that can be explored, in part, through analysis of English language writings. The first part of the book explores how a myth of epiphany in Tibet comes to dominate English texts of travel in Tibet, while the second part considers how Tibetan autobiographers writing in English have responded and resisted Western images of them.

This book explores two kinds of self-presentation in Tibet and the Tibetan diaspora: that of British writers in their travel texts to Tibet from 1774 to 1910 and that of Tibetans in recent autobiographies in English. McMillin argues that Tibet and the Anglophone West have had a long, complex, and convoluted relationship that can be explored, in part, through analysis of English language writings. The first part of the book explores how a myth of epiphany in Tibet comes to dominate English texts of travel in Tibet, while the second part considers how Tibetan autobiographers writing in English have responded and resisted Western images of them.