So Close to Heaven

For more than a thousand years Tibet, Sikkim, Ladakh, and Bhutan were the santuaries of Tantric Buddhism. But in the last half of this century, geopolitics has scoured the landscape of the Himalayas, and only the reclusive kingdom of Bhutan remains true to Tantric Buddhism. As she travels through Bhutan and its neighbots, Crossette introduces readers to a world that has emerged from the middle ages only to find itself peering into the abyss of modernity.

1. And Then There Was One
2. The Druk Gyalpo
3. Becoming Buddha
4. Before Tibet, There Was Bon
5. The Road from Lumbini
6. Ladakh: Eclipsed by Other Gods
7. Sikkim: “No One Heard Us Cry”
8. Buddhist Nepal
9. Buddha and the Bhutanese State
10. The Dragon People
11. All Sentient Beings
12. Aum Rinzi’s World
13. Two Capitals, Two Eras
14. To Tashigang
15. One Sunday in Bumthang

An Afterthought
A Glossary of Common Words