ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the reasons why ‘Tibet studies’ are an important contemporary field of research, the topics which need urgent attention, and the state of Tibet studies in India. It describes an interesting aspect of Tibet studies is the diversity of the fields. The impressions and perspectives that most senior correspondents and Tibet ‘experts’ of the time had about the ‘Roof of the World’ at that turning point of Tibet’s history were eye-opening. The chapter presents the topics as disparate as geography, environmental sciences, climatology, geology, archeology, paleontology, biology, religion, sociology, and, of course, strategic studies and historical research. The monasteries of Tibet became the last repositories of the ancient wisdom which had been virtually destroyed in India, its land of origin. The causes for the disappearance of Buddhism from India are many. In many ways, the old Tibetan civilization with its pluses and minuses is an interesting subject to study.
