A Comprehensive Survey of Rock Art in Upper Tibet: Volume III

Focusing on the Eastern half of Stod, this is the third in a series of five volumes that comprehensively document rock art in Upper Tibet. It examines a panoply of graphic evidence found on stone surfaces, supplying an unprecedented view of the long-term development of culture and religion on a large swathe of the Tibetan Plateau. The pictographs (rock paintings) and petroglyphs (rock carvings), host sites, and descriptions and analyses presented are the direct result of intensive fieldwork conducted by the author in Upper Tibet between 1995 and 2016. Information on rock art production techniques, subject identification, thematic class, mode of presentation, physical condition, estimated age, and relative location are supplied for each piece of rock art. In addition to the datasets, the book offers rock art site descriptions and assesses the cultural, religious and artistic development of these locations.

Author Biography

John Vincent Bellezza PhD is a specialist in the archaeology and cultural history of the highest reaches of the Tibetan Plateau. Author of 12 previous books and many academic articles on these subjects, he spent altogether eight years in Tibet engaged in fieldwork between 1984 and 2023. During the course of his explorations, he became the first westerner to visit the sources of the four major rivers arising in western Tibet and is perhaps the only person to reach most of the islands in the big lakes of the Tibetan tablelands.