Theos Casimir Hamati Bernard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theos_Bernard

Sometimes styled as "The White Lama," Bernard was said to be "the first European Lama," and the first (or second, or third) westerner to participate in sacred Tibetan religious rites, and to be inside inner temples of the Potala in Lhasa. Shortly after earning his B.A. and L.L.B. at the University of Arizona, Bernard went to Columbia University where he studies philosophy and the history of religion focusing one eastern studies. He earned an M.A. (1938) and later a Ph.D. (1943) from Columbia University -- his thesis and dissertation on tantric yoga. Bernard both capitalized on and contributed to public interest in and understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, eastern philosophy and religion, and particularly to the study of yoga (and, to a small degree, Tibetan language and culture). It is apparent that his commitments extended beyond popularization and interpretation of texts. However, beyond the study of yoga, his impact onTibetan scholarship apprears not to have been considerable. Bernard's 1937 trip to Tibet and his entrance into Lhasa were well documented and puclicized in the American media. He was an excellent photographer and on his trips he took extensive still and motion pciture film. He gave film-lectures about hsi trip to Tibet. Bernard died in 1947, reportedly killed in a remote area of Tibet/NW India during the Hindu-Moslem conflcits. He wrote seven books, several of which had multiple printings in their original editions, reprint edictions with different houses, and paperback edictions; several had foreign language editions. His best known book PENTHOUSE OF THE GODS (NY: Scribners, 19390, was published in Britain under the title LAND OF A THOUSAND BUDDHAS.