Book Description   

This volume  is a collection of eighteen ethnographic essays  on Anthropological Explorations in East and South–East Asia, reprinted from the almost forgotten Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, published during 1886-1936. Divided into five parts,  it includes works on history, religion, tea cult, the Torii  of Japan and the Torans of India;  a  paper that deals with the veneration of  dead in China; eight papers on Tibet: on its customs, devil driving processions, book procession of Lamas, Tibetan folklore in eastern Himalayas, and the method of computing distance by means of tea-cups; a paper on Burma on the monastic institution and its Phongys;  and four papers on Malaysia dealing with the tiger in Malay folklore, folk medicine, etiological folktales, Burmese   and Indian folk beliefs about the man tiger and the Malay version of two ancient Indian apologues.The volume suggests that the history of anthropological writings in India is much older than is  believed  to be.  In addition, it also portrays glimpses of  non-tribal societies beyond India studied by indigenous scholars. This book should interest anthropologists, sociologists, Buddhists, and students of East and South-East Asia.