Donald Lopez provides in this book a cultural history of the strange encounter between Tibetan Buddhism and the West. He reveals fanciful misconceptions of Tibetan life and religion and examines the movement for independence from China and the politics of the term Lamaism, a pejorative synonym for Tibetan buddhism. The book aims to present more than pop-culture anomalies, the history of Tibet presented is embedded in scholarly souces, and constitute a union of both the popular and academic.