“Twenty Lights to the Land of Snow” is a short story by Michael Bishop published in the Science Fiction collection, “Going Interstellar,” published 2012, edited by Les Johnson and Jack McDevitt.
McDevitt has wonderful SciFi novels already published reflecting an (future) archeologist’s point of view. Johnson has excellent stories in this collection.
My favorite story in this collection is Bishop’s: what if Tibet emigrated by starship to another planet? How would Tibet’s transition of Dalai Lamas proceed? What if the Lama descended on a non-Tibetan non-Male? Take it from there…
“Twenty Lights” translates to “twenty light years.” And faster-than-light travel is ruled out. We’re talking humans, religion, politics, technology. Take it from there… Which is why I love this particular treatment.
Sitearm 
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