本书为卢森堡学者阿尔伯特·艾廷格（Albert Ettinger）近期藏学研究成果，2014年*初由法兰克福Zambon出版社以德文出版，在欧洲多个**产生反响。本书以学术独特视角，从政治、经济、社会、文化、宗教、教育、卫生等多个方面，客观描述了旧西藏政教合一统治下的世相，披露了许多代表性事例。通过大量实证，图文并茂地介绍了封建农奴制下旧西藏的黑暗以及这个“喇嘛王国”里森严的等级制度，以严谨的资料分析向读者展示一个真实的西藏，揭穿了西方关于西藏的种种虚幻谎言，还原了西藏的本来面目，揭示了所谓“西藏问题”由来及其实质。本书视角独特，资料丰富新颖，颇具学术水准，令人耳目一新。
Is the Chinese description of old Tibet a blatant lie or could it be the truth? What did foreign visitors and explorers testify, as contemporary witnesses, and what do eminent western scholars state?
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在西方，提起西藏言必称“世界屋脊”，虔诚的喇嘛和充满异域情调的宗教场景，带着狡黠而又神秘的微笑的“神王”达赖喇嘛以及政治口号“自由西藏”，等等。卢森堡学者阿尔伯特?艾廷格（Albert Ettinger）这部近期藏学研究成果，为读者展示了“西藏神话”背后另一番历史图景，还原了西藏的本来面目。
Yet it is also possible that the phrase “hell on earth” comes to mind. Both the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government often used the term in relation to Tibet. Yet they both meant something completely different. For the Dalai Lama, the new Chinese Tibet that he left behind in 1959 is “hell” and a “large prison,” particularly because he believes that the Chinese oppress Tibetan Buddhism that he considers the core of Tibetan identity. However, from a Chinese perspective, it is the escaped god-king himself and the former Tibetan elite that stand for a “hell on earth”, namely for the old, traditional Tibet that was a deeply inhumane, dreadful, tyrannical, and corrupt feudal society.