Bücher veröffentlicht von Orchid Press Inc.

Masson was one of the most remarkable of British explorers, who wandered over the Punjab, Baluchistan and Afghanistan, between 1827 and 1840, usually alone and on foot. In Kabul he collected vast quantities of coins which revealed previously unknown Graeco-Bactrian and Kushan monarchs and excavated a large number of Buddhist monuments. During his Afghan sojourn he became both an intimate of local amirs and warlords, and a reluctant participant in the Great Game. Masson's detailed observations of political intrigues, factional strife and social divides among the Afghan population retain significant relevance today, in our attempts to understand this complexand fractious society.

The traditional religions of the remote tribes along the northern borderlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with their complex cosmology of gods and demons, preserved elements from archaic Indo-Aryan, and possibly even pre-Vedic, beliefs. While these regions were converted to Islam by the early 20th century, the deeply conservative nature and isolation of these tribes have combined to perpetuate, often in coexistence with Islam, ancient religious practices long extinct elsewhere in Asia. The author, a renowned Austrian anthropologist, integrates the diverse scholarly studies of colleagues in the fields of linguistics, cultural history and archaeology with his own field investigations to construct an authoritative account of the religious practices of this remote, still poorly understood corner of Asia.A groundbreaking and indispensable reference both for the general student of Asian religions and for specialists focussed on the tribal cultures of eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province.