Orchid Press is pleased to make available for the wide community with interest in Tibetan culture a reprint edition of this seminal conference featuring papers by some 47 eminent Tibetologists first presented at the International Seminar on Tibetan Studies in Oxford in 1979. Dedicated to one of the most highly respected of these scholars Hugh Richardson the quality and diversity of the papers herein reflecting as they do the very significant contribution to this field of Richardson himself are a fitting tribute to the man. Commencing with an essay in appreciation of Richardsons life and myriad achievements and followed by a complete bibliography of his writings the papers then presented span the full range of disciplines that have focused on this rich and endangered culture.