The image of Tibet is embedded in a dualism of Asia and Europe. The only thing that has changed is the associated value judgment. For example, the comparisons between Tibetan Buddhism and Catholicism and the fascination with the role of lamas in Tibetan society remain unchanged. In what follows, I would like to show that these stereotypes have been reiterated without change up to the present day. The essential elements of the Western image of Tibet were already fully developed in the eighteenth century. For this reason, Tibet offered itself as a screen upon which Western fantasies could be projected. Its seclusion lent the country an aura of mystery and magic. Until recently, Tibet’s geographical isolation meant that only small amounts of information about its culture reached Europe. On the other hand, Europeans judge the uniqueness of Tibet to lie either in its backwardness or in its manifestation of that which the West has lost. Europeans usually see in Tibet that which seems familiar to them-such as the apparent similarities between the religious customs of Tibet and the Catholic Church. Principally, we perceive the other in two fundamentally different ways: How is the other different from us, and how is the other similar to us? In each case, the other is subject to a value judgment. I would like to investigate the genesis of the Western image of Tibet by first employing a historical sketch. Buddhism in the West and the Image of Tibet¹ Dagyab Kyabgön Rinpoche
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