Ian Baker

Ian Bak­er holds advanced degrees in His­to­ry and Anthro­pol­o­gy and is the author of sev­en crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed books on Himalayan and Tibetan cul­ture, includ­ing Tibetan Yoga: Prin­ci­ples and Prac­tices, The Heart of the World, The Tibetan Art of Heal­ing, Bud­dhas of the Celes­tial Gallery, and The Dalai Lama’s Secret Tem­ple, a col­lab­o­ra­tive work with H.H. The Dalai Lama illu­mi­nat­ing Tantric Bud­dhist yoga and med­i­ta­tion prac­tices. He is an inter­na­tion­al fel­low of The Explor­ers Club and was des­ig­nat­ed by Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Soci­ety as one of sev­en ​“Explor­ers for the Mil­len­ni­um” for his field research in Tibet’s Tsang­po Gorge and his team’s dis­cov­ery of a water­fall that had been the source of myth and geo­graph­ic spec­u­la­tion for more than a cen­tu­ry. He has designed and led edu­ca­tion­al tours in Tibet, Nepal, India, and Bhutan for Smith­son­ian Insti­tu­tion, Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Expe­di­tions, and the Vic­to­ria and Albert Muse­um and is an active board mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al Soci­ety for Bhutan Studies.