High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism

We at the Sherpa Friendship Association recommend HIGH RELIGION first and foremost as the best Sherpa history book in English. Sherpa language itself is rarely written, but Ortner went to great lengths to locate original Sherpa histories actually written by educated Sherpa lamas. Her translations of the Sherpa migration (from Kham, Tibet) stories into English are wonderfully detailed, and her study of Sherpa clan politics, Sherpa Buddhist beliefs, and finance in the old Sherpa Kingdoms is more thorough than any other study before or since. Most of the research for this voume was conducted in Zhung Gompa (Junbesi) in SharKhumbu, the Southern Kingdom of the Sherpas. Surely Lama Dorje, the magical Sherpa Lama who founded Zhung Gompa, smiles upon this work!