Reviews
In this section I will review some of the books, tapes and software available for students of the Tibetan language. I will try to describe each item's strength and shortcomings, based on my experience as a student.I'm not associated with any of the authors or publishers of the material reviewed, and what I write is entirely based on my personal opinion.
It would be interesting to hear from other people who have used these books and software. All relevant comments will be added to the reviews.
Where to Purchase Study Material
With each review I have listed web sites that sell the item being reviewed. These are not necessarily the only places where the item is available. Again, I'm not associated with any of those sites and I have never done business with some of them.
We would like to hear from anyone who has bought items on the web; let us know how the purchasing process worked out. We have had good experience with Snow Lion (US) and Wisdom Books (UK).
When choosing a vendor, you should consider a few things. First is the price. On some items the price can vary a lot. A good example is the book "Essentials of Modern Literary Tibetan" , which is sold for $55 - $75 in North America, but for $10 to $21 in India, and £12 in the UK. But then you need to factor in shipping costs, and decide if it's safe to purchase from the site using a credit card.
Generally, books published in India, are about half the cost on Indian web sites, while books published in the West, e.g. by Snow Lion, tend to have the best price on the publisher's site. However, again, depending on where you are, you might be better off purchasing books from sites that ship the item from a location closer to you rather than getting them from the publisher. For example, it's probably best for people in the UK to buy books published by Snow Lion from the Wisdom Books web site.
For the software from TCC and PKTC, I prefer to use their online purchase side. This is, in most cases, the best deal and delivery is instant.
List of Main Online Vendors
