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Reviews Robert Barnett. Lhasa: Streets with Memories. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. xli, 264 pp. Cloth 24.50, isbn 02336803. For centuries Tibet, and particularly its heart, Lhasa, symbolized the epitome of the mystical and exotic for travelers the world over. Reaching it was difficult enough for Asians, next to impossible for Westerners. The more inaccessible it was, the more appealing it became, especially to Westerners then engaged in their imperial project of conquering and exploring every nook and cranny of the globe. The fabled city they all yearned to lay their eyes on had been an urban center from at least the ninth century and a pilgrimage site of considerable importance from the early fifteenth. By the seventeenth century, during the reign of the Fifth Dalai Lama and with the building of the Dalai Lamas' winter palace, the Potala, it had become the major commercial, educational, religious, and political center of Tibetan life. There have been no previous biographies of Lhasa,¹ and this one is not a customary urban history by any measure. Robert Barnett is interested in something quite different--and unique. For one thing, "there never was a single Lhasa," he argues, "today, as always, there
China Review International – University of Hawai'I Press
Published: Jan 24, 2007
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