DOC Jokhang: Tibet's Most Sacred Buddhist Temple by Gyurme Dorje; Tashi Tsering; Heather Stoddard; Andre Alexander; Ulrich van Schroeder in History

Description

Between 1901 and 1907 Alfred Kroeber; then a young professor at the University of California; Berkeley; made numerous trips into the country o the Yurok Indians; along the far northern California coast and inland on the lower Klamath River. The Yurok and their neighbors; the Hupa and the Karok; were the southernmost sharers of the great Northwest Coast Civilization. Kroeber; concentrating on the austere culture of Yurok; sought material artifacts for the University museum and collected Yurok myths;- tales of woe times; when the mythological heroes peopled the earth: the "never-eating" Pulekukwerek; the philandering Wohpekemeu; the scheming Coyote. From their informants Kroeber collected over 150 myths and variants; transcribing some in the original tongue; many on phonograph cylinders for later translation; and most in English through an interpreter. Over the years; as time form teaching and other research permitted; Kroeber worked at editing and annotating the myths. His death intervened as he neared the end of his task. Now; to mark the centennial of Kroeber's birth; the complete collection is published for the first time. Following Kroeber's plan; the myths told by each Yurok informant are grouped together. Each group is preceded by Kroeber's biographical and psychological study of the informant; and each tale is accompanied by Kroeber's explanatory notes. The book is Kroeber's final tribute to the Yurok. As Theodora Kroeber says in her Foreward; "They were the first California Indians he came to know; and they were the people and culture who most engaged his curiosity and attention."