Born in eastern Tibet in 1938, Ch�gyal Namkhai Norbu is an internationally known Dzogchen teacher and author as well as an eminent scholar of the history and culture of Tibet. He studied with renowned masters of various Tibetan Buddhist traditions at important monasteries and colleges, completing a rigorous program of traditional studies while still an adolescent. He revealed such extraordinary learning ability that he was considered a scholar even at an early age and when barely sixteen was invited to teach Tibetan at a university in China. He holds degrees in both philosophy and letters and traditional medicine. In 1960 he emigrated to Italy as a professor of Tibetology, and about a decade later began to give instructions to a growing following of Western students, initially on Yantra Yoga and subsequently on Dzogchen, the Total Perfection teachings of the Tibetan spiritual traditions. He is the founder of the International Dzogchen Community, created to encourage the teaching and practice of the Dzogchen point of view and meditation methods, and travels worldwide giving teachings and speaking at international conferences. A prolific author of books on Dzogchen, Yantra Yoga, and Tibetan history, medicine, and culture, he also founded ASIA and the Shang Shung Institute, two nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting the Tibetan people and preserving Tibetan culture.
"Ch�gyal Namkhai Norbu is one the foremost masters of Tibetan religions and recognized as a teacher and scholar. This book demonstrates his profound knowledge of Tibet's antiquity and shows the complex and sophisticated tradition of the Zhang Zhung civilization that flourished on the Tibetan plateau in ancient times." -Tsering Shakya, PhD, Canadian research chair in religion and contemporary society in Asia at the Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia "Scholars and students of early Tibet will welcome the publication in English of this first volume of Ch�gyal Namkhai Norbu's trilogy on the history of Zhang Zhung and Tibet. Accurately and carefully translated by Donatella Rossi, this book draws on a wide range of Bon sources and chronicles that shed light on the creation mythology, geography, lineages, and cultural legacy of ancient Zhang Zhung." -Gyurme Dorje, leading Tibetan scholar, translator, and author "Using traditional sources in an original way, this work paints a fascinating picture of the history and culture of the Zhang Zhung kingdom of early Tibet." -Sam van Schaik, PhD, Tibetologist and research project manager for the International Dunhuang Project (IDP) at the British Library "For many of us in the academic community who have been trying to keep a pulse on the phenomenon of Zhang Zhung, it's a relief that scholarly opinion is finally starting to shift from the previously standard view that the period of Songtsen Gampo's reign - when Buddhism was beginning to be introduced - defines the roots of much of Tibetan culture. It is now fairly clear that, to the contrary, much of what makes Tibet "Tibetan" - for example, an emphasis on bardo rites; a cohesive, spiritual taxonomy for transmissions of alphabets, scripts, and systems of writing; historically long-enduring divination practices; distinctive frameworks of medicine (including moxibustion); signature practices of fine arts; and even contemplative methods for dreaming - derives from the Zhang Zhung civilization." -J.I. Abbot, Mandala
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