A Shrine for Tibet


Book Description

Tibetan Buddhists see the world in two realities, of relative and absolute: the relative world is experienced as either the ordinary world of samsaric suffering or the extraordinary state of universal bliss and fulfillment. This title is a celebration of this philosophy.




A Buddhist Pilgrim at the Shrines of Tibet


Book Description

Tsybikov was the first scholar with a European education to visit Tibet and describe its monasteries and temples as an eyewitness traveler and an objective researcher. Tsybikov had two distinct advantages: an ethnic Buryat he could travel as a Buddhist pilgrim and thus have a chance of reaching its mysterious capital Lhasa, the religious and political center of Tibet, which was barred to outsiders, especially Europeans; as a scholar educated at a European university he had the historical and linguistic background to understand and describe what he saw. Tsybikov understood the secretive nature of the lama state and was careful to hide his work as a researcher. It was his journal that became the basis of A Buddhist Pilgrim at the Shrines of Tibet, which has both the vividness of a traveller’s eyewitness account and the informed detachment of a scholar. As a record of both religious practices and the everyday life in Tibet before Chinese inroads during the twentieth century effaced that way of life, Tsybikov’s book is a unique and invaluable snapshot of a lost culture.




A Shrine for Tibet


Book Description




Surviving the Dragon


Book Description

On a peaceful summer day in 1952, ten monks on horseback arrived at a traditional nomad tent in northeastern Tibet where they offered the parents of a precocious toddler their white handloomed scarves and congratulations for having given birth to a holy child—and future spiritual leader. Surviving the Dragon is the remarkable life story of Arjia Rinpoche, who was ordained as a reincarnate lama at the age of two and fled Tibet 46 years later. In his gripping memoir, Rinpoche relates the story of having been abandoned in his monastery as a young boy after witnessing the torture and arrest of his monastery family. In the years to come, Rinpoche survived under harsh Chinese rule, as he was forced into hard labor and endured continual public humiliation as part of Mao's Communist "reeducation." By turns moving, suspenseful, historical, and spiritual, Rinpoche's unique experiences provide a rare window into a tumultuous period of Chinese history and offer readers an uncommon glimpse inside a Buddhist monastery in Tibet.




Tibet's Sacred Mountain


Book Description

• The record of a spiritual journey through an extraordinary land, and of the devoted pilgrims who seek to climb Mount Kailas. • Two Americans recount their experiences during the sacred pilgrimage to one of the most remote places on Earth. • With more than 100 color photographs that capture the awe-inspiring landscape and the tireless determination of the pilgrims. In a remote corner of western Tibet, in one of the highest, most pristine places on Earth, rises a sublime snow-clad pyramid of rock and snow--Mount Kailas. To Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims this 22,028-foot mountain is the throne of the gods, the "Navel of the Earth," the place where the divine takes earthly form. For more than a thousand years these pilgrims have journeyed here to pay homage to the mountain's mystery, circumambulating it in an ancient ritual of devotion that continues to the present day. Spinning prayer wheels, chanting mantras, and prostrating themselves at shrines, the pilgrims make the arduous climb toward the physical and emotional high point of the journey, the lofty pass known as the Dolma La. With spectacular color photography and vivid travel writing, Tibet's Sacred Mountain provides a stunning account of this awe-inspiring landscape, and of the variety, vitality, and sheer determination of the pilgrims who venture there. Both photographer Russell Johnson and writer Kerry Moran have made the difficult pilgrimage around the mountain several times. Tibet's Sacred Mountain is the record of their inspiring journey that opens a window on a magical land of pure light and dazzling color where the temporal and the eternal unite and where every feature of the landscape holds its own divinity.




Sadness, Love, Openness


Book Description

A direct, pithy, and accessible guide to the entire path of Tibetan Buddhism by one of the most beloved and respected contemporary lamas. Accessible, playful, and genuine, this concise guide shows how we can incorporate our own daily experiences into our spiritual path and awaken to how things truly are. By embracing sadness, love, and openness in our lives, we develop an altruistic attitude to help all beings who suffer and to reduce our own greed and aggression. This easy-to-read manual by one of the most widely loved and respected Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our time teaches us how to honestly explore and deal with our own hang-ups and neuroses. Through knowing our own true nature as aware and compassionate, we can progress, step-by-step, on the Buddhist path and use Rinpoche’s pithy wisdom along the way as a touchstone. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s fresh and engaged approach to timeless Buddhist wisdom enables us to deeply connect with authentic teachings in a modern context. This work is a delight and inspiration to read, outlining the major teachings and practices of Buddhism in a succinct way.




Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet


Book Description

* First systematic review of Tibetan ritual art* Never-before-published Buddhist art objects* Written by expert on Tibetan art, Michael HenssTibetan Buddhist art is not only rich in figural icons but also extremely diverse in its symbols and ritual objects. This first systematic review is an abundantly illustrated reference book on Tibetan ritual art that aids our understanding of its different types and forms, its sacred meanings and ceremonial functions. Over eighteen chapters, several hundred different implements are documented in detail, in many cases for the first time and often in their various styles and iconographic forms: altar utensils and amulets, masks and mirrors, magic daggers and mandalas, torma sculptures and prayer objects, vajras and votive tablets, sacrificial vessels and oracle crowns, stupas and spirit traps, ritual vases, textiles, furniture, and symbolic emblems. These are accompanied by many historical and modern text sources, as well as rare recorded oral material from high-ranking Tibetan masters. This long-awaited handbook is a must-have for all those with a profound interest in Buddhist art and religion.




Princess in the Land of Snows


Book Description

This is the story of a determined woman who overcame great obstacles in order to achieve religious freedom. Born in eastern Tibet, Jamyang Sakya married into the powerful Sakya family, spiritual advisers of Kublai Khan and for years rulers of much of Central Asia. Her engaging personal story evokes a rich vision of Tibet's traditional culture, customs, and religious practices. Jamyang Sakya tells of being the only girls in a monastic private school, of dreams and divinations interpreted by high lamas, of long pilgrimages to sacred Buddhist sites, and of her life as a high lady of Sakya. Her narrative reveals a multifaceted picture, from the intricacies of managing a palace household to the political takeover by the Chinese Communists, who destroyed much of Tibet's religious heritage. It climaxes with the Sakya family's harrowing walk through the Himalayas to freedom, during which they were hotly pursued by the Chinese. After a year in India, they immigrated to the United States, one of the first Tibetan families to do so.




Tibetan Sacred Art


Book Description

This is the second edition of one of the earliest and most comprehensive writings on Tibetan art, addressing painting, illustrated manuscripts, imagery and architecture. It is drawn from the author's sojourns in all lamaist countries - from Ladakh in the West to Bhutan in the East.




Tibet, Tibet


Book Description

In 1982, while he was still a schoolboy, Patrick French met the Dalai Lama for the first time. Ever since, he has been fascinated by Tibet's people, its history, and its recent plight. For centuries, Tibet has occupied a unique place in the Western imagination: romantic, mysterious, a remote mountain kingdom of incarnate lamas and nomadic herdsmen, of gold-roofed monasteries and hidden valleys which hold the secret of eternal youth. In recent years, Tibet has acquired an additional resonance as the oppressed vassal of its mighty neighbour China. Its plight has attracted Hollywood stars, and the exiled Dalai Lama has become the global embodiment of spiritual attainment and unflagging commitment to his nation. The effect of these myths has been more to obscure than to reveal the reality of the country, its people and its plight. Tibet, Tibet has its origins in Patrick French's twenty-year involvement in the Tibetan cause. Part memoir, part travel book, part history, it is a quest for the true Tibet. relationship with China. He meets victims and perpetrators of Mao's Cultural Revolution, and young nuns who continue the fight against Communist rule. He stays in the tents of nomads, and hears first-hand accounts of the hopeless battle against overwhelmingly superior Chinese forces which ended, in a single day, a way of life which had endured for thousands of years. On his journey, Patrick French is continually sidetracked by a cascade of information, thoughts and reflections on such subjects as how to blind a cabinet minister using a yak's knucklebones, the correct method of travelling across a desert by night, and the reasons for the Dalai Lama's transformation into 'an unknown dark-brown bird, bigger than a normal raven'. Patrick French has found a new way of writing about a place and its history. He fascinatingly illuminates one of the most persistently troubling of international issues, and confirms his reputation as one of the finest writers at work today.