Tibet.

First Edition. Bell was one of the first Westerners to make a serious study of the culture of Tibet. He was given responsibility for overseeing the Chumbi Valley, which was briefly ceded to Britain following the Younghusband Expedition in 1904, and shortly afterward published A Manual of Colloquial Tibetan. He was Political Officer to Sikkim, with responsibility as Diplomatic Officer for Bhutan and Tibet, from 1908 to 1919, and befriended the exiled 13th Dalai Lama in Darjeeling. After his retirement in 1921 he devoted the rest of his life to making Tibet intelligible to the wider world and to vindicate its right to independence. DNB describes his works as “indispensable sources of information.”

8vo. Original blue cloth, title gilt to spine, Tibetan seals in gilt to upper and lower boards. Coloured frontispiece and numerous half-tone plates from the author’s photographs, 2 folding maps. Light toning, a little rubbed at the extremities, but overall very good.