New From Cognoscenti Books – February 2013

During February we have published the following ebooks which are now available on our own site at COGNOSCENTI BOOKS, as well as on Amazon, iStore, Kobo,  Barnes & Noble and the Best Indie Book Store.

THE ILLUSTRATED ART OF WAR: SUN TZU

An illustrated version of the classic Chinese Study. 12,000 words, 104 historical images

Sun Tzu’s Art of War has been read and appreciated by a host of military men and philosophers down through the ages. More recently, it has become popular as a manual for business success and guide to boardroom battles, seen by many as a lodestar in achieving success in the ruthless world of competitive capitalism – a text so currently fashionable that even Paris Hilton has been photographed reading it.

Yet what makes the present study so valuable is not just the text, but the genuinely unique collection of 104 accompanying images linking China’s first unifying Emperor Qin Shi Huang with Mao Zedong, Genghis Khan with Tamerlane, Hulagu Khan with the Manchu conqueror Nurhaci – and, indeed, Sun Tzu with US General Douglas MacArthur.

Price : US$7.99

TRADERS OF THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE

How the hardy Yunnanese Chinese known as “Haw” have dominated the region for more than six centuries. 36,500 words, 70 historical images, 46 contemporary images, 5 maps, Bibliography

During the latter half of the twentieth century the little-known and often lawless region where Laos, Burma, Thailand and China meet has become known and widely romanticised as ‘The Golden Triangle’. Originally a Western designation applied to the region because of its wealth in jade, silver, rubies, lumber, rare animal products and, above all, opium, the name has stuck and is today accepted both in Chinese and in Thai.

By reputation, by very definition, the area is off the beaten track. The home of drug warlords, arms dealers, insurgent armies, latter-day slave traders and plain, old-fashioned bandits, it is also the home of an extraordinarily wide range of colourful ethnic minorities, many still only partly known and understood, and a veritable Tower of Babel linguistically.

Price : US$8.99

THE ILLUSTRATED TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE ILLUSTRATED TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD

The Tibetan funerary text Bardo Thodol or Tibetan Book of the Dead. 16,000 words, 4 appendices, 71 historic images, 9 contemporary images

Bardo Thodol or ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead’ is a mystical funerary text rooted in the Tibetan Tantric and Vajrayana Buddhist teachings. Composed by the guru and sage Padmasambhava in the 8th century, the Bardo Thodol is recited by a Buddhist lama over a dying or recently deceased person as a spiritual guide to the process of death and that which follows. This illustrated version combines the English language text by Walter Evans-Wentz with a unique collection of 80 pictures relating to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Price : US$8.99