The first part of this book deals with historical matters especialily the stereotyped notions of the king Land Darma in Tibetan Buddhist historical works. It is followed by a comparative study of the cult of local deities (yul lha).
The second part is mainly devoted to the Buddhist rites such as the ones instituted as state ceremonies by the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682) as well as discussions about the mural painting in the Red Palace in the Potala that depicts the life of the Fifth Dalai Lama.
The third part deals with the Bon religion and history of its monastic institution as well as its followers such as the rebellious Thirty-nine Tribes of Hor.

Arrow and the Spindle, Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet, Samten Karmay, Mandala Publications, Paperback, 2005, 237 Pages, $25.00

Born in Amdo, North-Eastern Tibet, and educated in a Bonpo Monastery, Samten G. Karmay studied Buddhist philosophy in Drepung, a monastic university in Central Tibet, until 1959. He was a Visiting Scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London where he had obtained M. Phil. and Ph.D. degrees.

He has been Visiting Scholar in a number of academic institutions: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris; Toyo Bunko, University of Tokyo and the University of Kyoto, Japan.

In 1981 he became Charg de Recherche in the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (C.N.R.S.), Paris and a member of Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative, Universite de Paris-X. From 1989 he became a Directeur de Recherche in C.N.R.S. and was awarded the 1990 Silver Medal of the C.N.R.S. for l'originalit et la qualite in his research. He has carried out several research missions in Tibet: Amdo in 1985, Central Tibet in 1987 and 1991; Khams and Amdo in 1993; Central Tibet in 1995; India and Nepal in 1996. In 1995 he was elected President of the International Association for Tibetan Studies at its 7th Congress in Graz, Austria.

He is the author of several books including The Great Perfection, A Philosophical and Meditative Teaching of Tibetan Buddhism, and Secret Visions of the Fifth Dalai Lama. He has also published over forty articles on various aspects of Tibetan civilization in English, French and Tibetan.

	Contents: The Arrow and the Spindle: Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in TIBET, Vol. II
	Preface	9
	Abbreviations	11
	Part I
	History and the yul lha cult in Tibet
1.	King Glang Dar-ma and his Rule	15
	(Paper presented at the conference on History of Tibet, St. Andrews University, August 31-September 5, 2001)
2.	Concepts of Territorial Organization and their Transformation into Buddhist Sacred sites	31
	(Paper presented at the Eighth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies [IATS}, Indiana University, Bloomington, July 25-31, 1998)
3.	A Comparative Study of the yul lha Cult in two Bonpo areas and its Cosmological Aspects	53
	(New Horizons in Bon Studies, Samten G. Karmay, Yasuhiko Nagano eds. National Museum of Ethnology, Bon Studies 2, Osaka 200, 383-413, [Senri Ehtnological Reports 15])	181
	Part II
	The Fifth Dalai Lama and rNying ma pa teachings
4.	The Rituals and their Origins in the Visionary Accounts of the Fifth Dalai Lama	73
	(Religion and Secular Culture in Tibet, Tibetan Studies II, H. Blezer, ed. Brill, 2002, 21-40. Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies [IATS], International Institute for Asian Studies [IIAS], Leiden 2000)
5.	A Most Pleasing Symphony, An Unknown Biography of the Fifth Dalai Lama	95
	(The Pandita and the Siddha. Tibetan Studies in Honour of E. Gene Smith, CD-rom presented to E. Gene Smith, R. Prats & D. Jackson, eds., 2001)
6.	The Mural Paintings in the Red Palace of the Potala	109
	(Paper presented at the conference on La Vallee de Lhasa: histoire, conservation er modernisation de l'architecture tibetaine, Meudon, France, November 27-29, 1997)
7.	rDo-rje Gling-pa and his Rediscovery of the "Gold Needle" in Bhutan	119
	(Journal of Bhutan Studies, Vol. 2, Winter 2000, 1-38)
	Part III
	Bonpo people and their heritage
8.	Introduction to the New Collection of Bonpo Katen Texts	149
	(A Catalogue of New Collection of Bonpo Katen Texts, Samten G. Kamay, Yasuhiko Nagano, eds. National Museum of Ethnology, Bon Studies 3, Osaka 2001, vii-xiv [Senri Ethnological Reports 24])
9.	Introduction to a Survey of Bonpo Monasteries and Temples in Tibet and the Himalaya	159
	(A Survy of Ponpo Monasteries and Temples in Tibet and the Himalaya, Samten G. Karmay, Yasuhiko Nagano, eds. Bon Studies 7, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka 2003, 1-16 [Senri Ethnological Reports 18])
10.	The Thirty-Nine Tribes of Hor: A Historical Perspective	181
	(Paper presented at the conference on Myth, Territoriality and Ritual in Tibetan Areas, Vienna, December 2-5, 1999)
	Bibliography	211
	Indexes	225