author
W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz
1878–1965
Best known for bringing The Tibetan Book of the Dead to English-language readers, this American scholar and writer helped spark Western interest in Tibetan Buddhism. His life mixed academic study, spiritual searching, and years of travel in Asia and Europe.
1 Audiobook
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz
About the author
Born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1878, Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz became an American anthropologist and writer whose name is closely tied to the early Western study of Tibetan Buddhism. He studied at Stanford and later at Oxford, and his interests ranged from folklore and anthropology to comparative religion and mysticism.
He is most widely remembered for editing and publishing an early English version of The Tibetan Book of the Dead in 1927. He also worked on other influential volumes drawn from Tibetan sources, including Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa, Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, and The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation. His books introduced many English-speaking readers to Tibetan religious thought for the first time.
Evans-Wentz spent much of his life traveling and studying, and he remained interested in spiritual traditions across cultures. He died in 1965, but his work continued to shape how generations of readers first encountered Tibetan Buddhism in the West.