It has often been asserted that Tibetan society and culture were (in recent times at least) unadaptable, unchanging and set in an outworn mould. This kind of assertion has been made both by those who employ it to prop up a claim to superiority and overlordship over the Tibetans and by poorly informed writers with scanty knowledge of the people, language and history of Tibet and hence of what they are purporting to write about. This book assembles much evidence to show that Tibetans, their society and their culture were by no means as unchanging as some have either chosen to maintain or have been led to believe.