The present volume is published in honour of the great scholar of Asia, Professor Giuseppe Tucci (18941984). Through the work of present-day scholars, both senior and emerging, it represents their efforts to maintain the impetus of the profound legacy left by him. Tucci is renowned to this day as a founding scholar in an extraordinarily wide variety of disciplines as well as being an explorer of hitherto largely unknown lands, such as Tibet. He gained a deep knowledge of Asia through a familiarity with the people, the places and the literature and his contribution to modern scholarship is nothing less than remarkable. The volume reflects the broad variety of topics in which Tucci himself displayed deep interest and serves as an homage to his work.