Theos Bernard, the White Lama: Tibet, Yoga, and American Religious Life

In 1937, Theos Casimir Bernard (1908–1947), the self-proclaimed "White Lama," became the third American in history to reach Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet. Durgaing his stay, he amassed the largest collection of Tibetan texts, art, and artifacts in the Western hemisphere at that time. He also documented, in both still photography and 16mm film, the age-old civilization of Tibet on the eve of its destruction by Chinese Communists.

Based on thousands of primary sources and rare archival mat...