Ta Ba Lin: A Tibetan Buddhist Nunnery Today, by Christa IsoldeMoser, Michael J. Moser

It's odd how history turns full circle. In the 1920s, Austrian-American explorer Joseph Rock visited Tibet, emerging with tales of a Buddhist lamasery whose 'golden roofs' glistened 'brilliantly in the sunlight'. Less than 40 years later, Tibetans engaged in monastic practices began feeling the heat from a brutal but nervous regime in China's distant east. A few years after that, Red Guards on a state-sponsored vandalism course tore through Ta Ba Lin, leaving few buildings habitable.

Its history, current standing and rosy-looking future are brought cheerily to life in this anthropological assessment by a father and daughter who have spent years documenting - and sumptuously photographing - the daily life, social organisation and religious observances of a fabled institution that has refused to die. As well as initiation rituals, group and individual worship, the economy of the nunnery, the nuns' educational needs and their (sometimes stormy) relations with outside communities, this book describes the monumental strides made by the China Exploration and Research Society (CERS) in securing the nunnery's continued physical presence.

CERS' long-term conservation project spans preservation of the original lamasery buildings and fragile murals, improving the nuns' living conditions (the complex's first toilets were installed in 2003) and enhancing the sisterhood's finances.

Today's nuns, living close to the path of the tea-for-horses caravan trade route between Yunnan and the Tibetan plateau, would love to see you next time you find yourself tramping the Mount Kawa Range, say the Mosers.