The author, William Woodville Rockhill, (1854-1914) was a scholar-diplomat, linguist, ethnologist and Tibetan expert who was the first American to speak, read and write Tibetan, and the first to explore the Tibetan highlands, where he travelled extensively. Later American Minister to China, he was an authority on Buddhism and a friend of the thirteenth Dalai Lama. His collection of Tibetan manuscripts, including those consulted for this volume, became the core of the Tibetan holdings in the Library of Congress.

• INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1. HISTORY OF THE WOULD FROM THE TIME OF ITS RENOVATIION TO THE REIGN OF CUDDHODANA -A, FATHER OF THE BUDDHA CHAPTER II FROM THE REIGN OF CUDDHODANA UNTIL THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE BUDDHA'S MINISTRY CHAPTER III LIFE OF THE BUDDHA FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF H[S M[I'I[1]8TRY UNTIL THE REIGN OF ADJATASATRU CHAPTER IV. FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF ADJATASATRU 'S REIGN TO THE DEATH OF THE BUDDHA CHAPTER V HISTORY OF THE CHURCH DURING THE HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS WHICH FOLLOWED THE BUDDHA'S DEATH CHAPTER VI HISTORY OF THF SCHOOLS OF BUDDHIAS CHAPTER VII. THE EARLY HISTORY OF BOD-YUL (TIBET) CHAPTER VIII. THE EARLY HISTORY OF LI-YUL (KHOTEN)