Glimpse of Another World

The remarkable memoirs and photographs of F. Bailey Vanderhoef, Jr., are the subject of a site sponsored by the University of California. This documents his 1938 trek to Western Tibet, and gives glimpses of a world now long dissolved.

In 1969, I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Mr. Vanderhoef, in St. Francis Wood, in the single most bewildering and surreal encounter of my entire life -- which is saying something, for I am not bereft of bewildering and surreal encounters.

Quite unexpectedly, he gave me some items from his tremendous personal collection of Tibetan art and artifacts -- two of which I gave to Tarthang Rinpoche, two of which were subsequently stolen by a Berkeley plumber, and one which remains with me to the present day.