Long Lives and Untimely Deaths, volume 27 in Brill's Tibetan Studies Library, is an ethnographic exploration of concepts, methods, and ritual practices that Tibetans deploy in an attempt to portend the life course, increase longevity, and avoid misfortune. The book is organized in five parts. The first (“Ethnographic Settings and Analytical Frameworks”) situates the study within the anthropology of time, or more specifically, “practices of temporalisation,” which the author explains as “diverse activities through which Tibetans mediate between existing temporal frameworks and their personal and collective situations in wide-ranging, dissimilar contexts” (p. 286). This theoretical framework makes sense given the focus on life forces and the life span. Although the author did not do so, this study could also be situated within medical anthropology since it deals explicitly with Tibetan concepts of health, healing, and well-being.

The strength of the second part of the book (“The Field Site and Tibetan Areas of Knowledge”) is a nuanced, insightful discussion of Tibetan ethnicity and identity in the Darjeeling Hill region of India. The author raises important questions by focusing on how Tibetan identity is understood and enacted in a place where many youths speak Nepali and English more readily than Tibetan, and provides an engaging analysis of how one group of Tibetans can maintain a “cultural vibrancy” that is not necessarily coupled with linguistic continuity. In doing so she reminds us of the heterogeneity of Tibetan communities in South Asia, which is an important corrective to much of the scholarship on Tibetan identity that centers disproportionately on Dharamsala (the center of the exile's political world) and leaves the impression of cultural and linguistic homogeneity. Furthermore, in light of recent trends, such as the migration of ethnic Tibetans from the highlands of Nepal to Kathmandu and abroad, the migration of Tibetan exiles from South Asia to North America and Europe, and the intermingling of Tibetan and non-Tibetan populations along the borders of the Tibetan Plateau in China, the author's timely analysis should be considered a benchmark for future studies of Tibetan identity in relation to linguistic practices.

Parts 3 and 4 (“The Life-Span and Life Forces in Tibetan Medical Contexts” and “The Life-Span in Astrological and Divinatory Contexts”) explore Tibetan concepts associated with the life span. These sections are highly technical, rooted in a combination of textual and ethnographic analysis, rich in detail and very informative. The author deserves high praise for presenting complex material in a way that avoids simplification while revealing subtle details about concepts such as rten 'brel (“arising in mutual connection”), bla (“subtle life essence”) and bar chad (“obstacle, misfortune”). The author adroitly navigates these and other concepts through a balanced presentation of textual materials, explications by clerics and practitioners of Tibetan medicine, and understandings of lay Tibetans. Thankfully, the author provides an extensive glossary, which proved to be an invaluable resource while reading through these dense sections. Also, appendix 1 provides a succinct and accessible summary of terms and their meanings in five different contexts: medical, astrological, divinatory, ritual, and popular knowledge.

Part 5 (“Tibetan Buddhist Long-Life Empowerments”) uses ethnographic description to explore public tshe dbang (“long-life empowerment”) rituals through which ordinary Tibetans attempt to influence longevity and reduce their chances of meeting untimely deaths. The pragmatics of lay Tibetans’ engagement with rituals is highlighted through interviews that reveal people's motives for attending public long-life empowerments, and rich descriptions of crowds surging forward to receive the blessings of the lama and their consecrated offerings. This section displays the full force of the author's usage of “situational agency,” that is, “various temporal frameworks found in Tibetan knowledge systems are not only abstract concepts that appear in texts or calendars, but are employed and often (re)interpreted differently by professionals as well as lay people according to situation” (p. 286).

One shortcoming of Long Lives and Untimely Deaths is that the conclusion reads more like a précis of the book than an attempt to fully explore the theoretical ramifications of the study. Rather than reengaging theory or expanding the analysis through comparison with long-life rituals across the globe, the author reiterates the main points of the book, chapter by chapter, which is somewhat of an anticlimax in light of the fascinating material presented throughout.

To conclude, one wonders how different this study would look if conducted in a Tibetan society characterized by high mortality and relatively brief life spans. Whereas Tibetans in Darjeeling can reasonably expect to attain old age, the beliefs and rituals described in the book emerged and were elaborated during a previous era when life expectancy was short and a high percentage of individuals died in infancy or childhood. For example, how would a mother who bore eight children, only to see three survive to adulthood, view the efficacy of long-life empowerment rituals differently than a young mother raised and educated in Darjeeling? This last point is merely an observation, not a criticism of the author's scholarship. In sum, Long Lives and Untimely Deaths is an excellent ethnography and a valuable contribution to Tibetan studies.