To the Western imagination, Tibet has always been a mysterious place. For centuries its capital, Lhasa, was known as a Forbidden City: it was ruled by a priest-king, and its medieval society was not welcoming to foreigners. But the exile of the Dalai Lama and his followers half a century ago, the destruction of the monasteries, and the plight of the Tibetan people who remained, evoked continuing sympathy. Jonathan Gregson places the religious and political situation against an historical perspective in this sympathetic portrait.