Tibetan Lives

25th Anniversary Edition Over 3 Million Copies Sold 'I couldn't give this book a higher recommendation' BILLY CONNOLLY Written by the Buddhist meditation master and popular international speaker Sogyal Rinpoche, this highly acclaimed book clarifies the majestic vision of life and death that underlies the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It includes not only a lucid, inspiring and complete introduction to the practice of meditation, but also advice on how to care for the dying with love and compassion, and how to bring them help of a spiritual kind. But there is much more besides in this classic work, which was written to inspire all who read it to begin the journey to enlightenment and so become 'servants of peace'.

This tibetan cookbook includes text explaining the social customs and habits as they relate to foods and cooking in Tibetan life. Included are illustrations and descriptions of the use of a few special cooking utensils.

In the early years of the 20th century, control over Tibet was contested by three major empires: those of China, Russia and Britain. The imperial powers and those who came in their wake - missionaries, scholars, traders and soldiers - employed local staff to assist in their dealings with the Tibetans, and these employees were in the vanguard of Tibet's encounter with the outside world. Yet they have been largely forgotten by history and most of the knowledge and understandings that they gained have been lost. It was left to a Dutchman, Johan van Manen, and hence an outside observer of the British imperial system, to preserve the impressions of three who served on the periphery of the imperial system. The three autobiographies that make up this book, crowded with ethnographical, sociological and historico-religious data, offer a unique insight into the world of the intermediary class. In addition to being interesting and entertaining, they are an important contribution to our understanding of the history of Tibet and its opening up to cultures beyond its own.

"A historically isolated people, the Tibetans have now indeed come to the land of the red man, and nearly every other country on earth. When the Chinese invaded the country in 1959 and proceeded to destroy the ancient-wisdom culture as well as nearly a sixth of the population, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans fled to India and parts west. In the 1980s, the prophecy was fulfilled, and the Dalai Lama, exiled leader of Tibet, met with Hopi and other American Indian elders in an effort to reunite the brothers." "Tibet's spiritual elders are dying off, and it is with them that so many of the secrets of survival lie. They are the ones who can find by touching someone's wrist what our medicine cannot detect; they saw the empty spaces of the atom before science considered the concept of subatomic particles; they know how to realign even severe emotional imbalances without drugs or therapy; they know what plants heal us (they have catalogued more than two thousand) and how to save them from destruction; they predicted the demise of their own country at the hands of the Chinese; they saw the coming of AIDS almost ten centuries ago. These people are dying off, and with them, the wisdom we need to make it through the next century and beyond." "After the Chinese occupation of their country, many Tibetan elders were killed in reeducation camps. Many survived, however, to escape what has now become a brutally oppressive environment. Sandy Johnson traveled around the world gathering the life stories and teachings of Tibetan doctors, the state oracle, the previous Dalai Lama's tailor, the great women masters - the entire range of the culture. An astrologer offers to produce Sandy's chart, including the date of her death; a stone carver shows her the rocks with prayers painted on them that he places in the river at the end of every day so that the water may carry blessings to everything it touches; Johnson meets a woman of indeterminate age who lives her life in a cave praying that people might be less distracted by material things and learn to care for each other again. At the same time, Johnson herself is on a spiritual quest, and interwoven with the stories of the elders comes her own physical healing as well as a long-awaited reconciliation with her family. The book is filled with predictions made by the Tibetan elders about the course of Johnson's life - most of which have already come true."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

From the heights of the Himalayas to the hills of Hollywood, Tibetan Buddhism has touched all corners of the world. Explore the history, heritage and contemporary life of Tibetan Buddhists in this journey through the world of Tibetan Buddhism. Don Farber captures the serenity of the Buddhist life and examines its influences on architecture and art in Western society.

"An escape that for drama and daring makes most Hollywood fare pale by comparison...[Brown's] neutral journalistic tone is useful for reporting so much that seems incredible."-Washington Post The 17th Karmapa, one of the holiest figures in Tibetan Buddhism, arrived in Dharmsala as a 14-year-old boy in 2000, after an extraordinary escape across the Himalayas. Fascinated by this charismatic young figure, Mick Brown traveled to meet him, and found himself drawn into the labyrinthine web of intrigue surrounding the 17th Karmapa's recognition and early life. Mick Brown is the author of four previous books and has written extensively about music, movies, and religion. Born in London, he is a freelance journalist and broadcaster. "Intelligent and well-written...superbly accessible...Far from being a mere report on the 17th Karmapa and his exodus, this is an excellent history of modern Tibetan Buddhism on a broad scale."-Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Tangled rumors, rivalries among lamas, a secret letter, gnarled court cases, and violence all feature in this complex and startling tale...Brown's informative and frank portrait of the courageous young lama conveys the power of Tibetan Buddhism and the blight of 'theological politics.'"-Booklist

A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the bestselling author of Nothing to Envy “A brilliantly reported and eye-opening work of narrative nonfiction.”—The New York Times Book Review NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Parul Sehgal, The New York Times • The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • NPR • The Economist • Outside • Foreign Affairs Just as she did with North Korea, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick explores one of the most hidden corners of the world. She tells the story of a Tibetan town perched eleven thousand feet above sea level that is one of the most difficult places in all of China for foreigners to visit. Ngaba was one of the first places where the Tibetans and the Chinese Communists encountered one another. In the 1930s, Mao Zedong’s Red Army fled into the Tibetan plateau to escape their adversaries in the Chinese Civil War. By the time the soldiers reached Ngaba, they were so hungry that they looted monasteries and ate religious statues made of flour and butter—to Tibetans, it was as if they were eating the Buddha. Their experiences would make Ngaba one of the engines of Tibetan resistance for decades to come, culminating in shocking acts of self-immolation. Eat the Buddha spans decades of modern Tibetan and Chinese history, as told through the private lives of Demick’s subjects, among them a princess whose family is wiped out during the Cultural Revolution, a young Tibetan nomad who becomes radicalized in the storied monastery of Kirti, an upwardly mobile entrepreneur who falls in love with a Chinese woman, a poet and intellectual who risks everything to voice his resistance, and a Tibetan schoolgirl forced to choose at an early age between her family and the elusive lure of Chinese money. All of them face the same dilemma: Do they resist the Chinese, or do they join them? Do they adhere to Buddhist teachings of compassion and nonviolence, or do they fight? Illuminating a culture that has long been romanticized by Westerners as deeply spiritual and peaceful, Demick reveals what it is really like to be a Tibetan in the twenty-first century, trying to preserve one’s culture, faith, and language against the depredations of a seemingly unstoppable, technologically all-seeing superpower. Her depiction is nuanced, unvarnished, and at times shocking.

In this seminal work of Tibetan Buddhist studies, Cyrus Stearns has translated a text recounting the masters in the transmission line of the Lam 'bras or "Path with the Result" teachings in Tibet. Luminous Lives contains a detailed description of the Lam 'bras teachings and the text of the masters' biographies in English and Tibetan. This book is an essential reference work for those interested in the Sakyapa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.