Nepal: The Discovery of the Malla

by Giuseppe Tucci, Lovett Edwards (Translator)

One of the world's greatest orientalists, Giuseppe Tucci, has made many journeys into the remote parts of Asia, more particularly into the Himalayas. He has completed eight journeys into Tibet and six into Nepal. This is the stirring account of his most recent expedition into Nepal and adjacent territory, in the course of which he uncovered in antique inscriptions the traces of a hitherto unknown empire, the Kingdom of the Malla, a dynasty which reigned for many centuries over a region as large as Italy.

The discovery was sudden and unexpected. Giuseppe Tucci had been marching for many weeks through the remote northerly areas on the frontiers of Tibet, a wild and thinly inhabited region, and he had the impression of traversing a country where man had never been able to free himself from the terrifying dominance of nature at her most pitiless. Yet temples, inscriptions and chronicles came suddenly upon him as if for many centuries they had been waiting for the propitious moment to reveal themselves.

In "Nepal," Tucci's account of his arduous archaeological and historical expedition combines with magnificent photographs in full color and in black and white (taken by Francesca Bonardi, one of the author's companions) to provide an exciting blend of scholarship and adventure in a far-off land.

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Giuseppe Tucci was a scholar of oriental cultures, specializing in Tibet and the history of Buddhism. He taught at the University of Rome La Sapienza until his death, though he remained a visiting scholar at institutions throughout Europe and Asia, and served as the first Chair of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Naples from 1931. He is considered one of the founders of the academic field of Buddhist Studies.