This is the first guidebook to include the whole Tibetan world. Roughly one third of the main body of the book is devoted to the Tibetan "Autonomous" Region, one third to other Tibetan lands governed by China, and one third to Bhutan and the Tibetan areas of Nepal and India.
It is an intensely practical book, directed to the independent traveller using public transport. It includes information about public transport which is readily available nowhere else; it does not include the telephone numbers of bus stations - an unfortunate omission.
The many excellent maps include regional maps, and no less than 126 maps of towns, many of them mapped in no other available book.
Important improvements would be: the inclusion of Chinese characters where appropriate in the text; the addition of markers to every Chinese word or name wherever it appears to indicate the tones, without which they cannot be pronounced; and a guide to the pronunciation of Tibetan, without which the section Survival Tibetan is scarcely useful.
Some travellers will want more information about the furnishings and images in Tibetan temples. In most of the territory covered, although not for India, Gyurme Dorje's "Tibet Handbook with Bhutan" (Footprint Handbooks) will provide that information, and be a complementary companion book.
The book will be indispensable for the serious traveller who wishes to understand the extent and the diversity of the Tibetan world.
