Category - Articles

June 2013

This month’s Flight of the Khyung takes you to ancient Ladakh, the westernmost part of the Tibetan plateau! We shall explore its early history and monuments from new perspectives. To help us in our quest is Quentin Devers, a young …

May 2013

This month’s Flight of the Khyung soars to some of the highest and oldest points in Tibet. We will visit what may be the loftiest pilgrimage site in the world, looking for evidence of ancient human settlement. There is also …

Scholar, explorer, writer and pilgrim John Vincent Bellezza is widely recognized as one of the foremost specialists in the archaeology and ancient cultural history of Tibet. He has lived in the high Himalaya for over a quarter of a century. Explore these pages for information about his work.

A senior research fellow at the Tibet Center, University of Virginia, Dr. Bellezza has written extensively on the nomads, history and culture of Upper Tibet. A pioneer in his field, he is credited with the discovery of hundreds of pre-Buddhist archaeological sites, describing the monuments and the people that built them in great detail. The Iron Age civilization he has charted is associated with Zhang Zhung, Tibet’s fabled ancient kingdom and source of much of her culture.