Early Hermits and Hermitages in China, Japan and Tibet: An Overview

This chapter provides an archaeological overview of the history of eremitism in China, Tibet and Japan. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or comprehensive review of the Eastern hermit tradition. Rather, it is to provide some comparative context to the later development of the eremitic tradition in the West and, like the previous chapter, explore an ancestry which was a formative part of a rich and broader tradition.