Lord of the Dance: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama

by Chagdud Tulku and Tulku Chagdud

Book Overview

Lord of the Dance is Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche's memoir of his life in Tibet, his escape from the Chinese Communist invasion, his years as a refugee in India and Nepal, and his return visit to his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1881847004
• ISBN13: 9781881847007
• Release Date: October 1992
• Publisher: Padma Publishing
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Precious Memories

This book is very precious, for sure it cannot tell enough how marvellous was Chagdud Tulku Rimpoche, buy it will inspire the reader and give a glimpse of his personality and some of his memories shared with his western students. Now there is a new edition of it: Lord of the Dance: Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama If you are new to Buddhism and want to find out more about Chagdud Rimpoche I suggest reading The Gates of Practice - Gates to Buddhist Practice: Essential Teachings of a Tibetan Master Congratulations to all involved on the creation of this book. May all benefit,

Blessings of the Iron Knot Lama

Lord of the Dance is a direct and uncontrived outline of the most recent Chagdud Tulku's life, particularly his experiences in Central Asia and India. Given the apparently supernatural nature (if you will) of many of the events narrated, the stylistic approach of this text is not unlike a journalistic sort of magical realism. This vision and that miracle are as real as the rotting tomatoes in the Tibetan refugee camp, and the reader needs little convincing of this. In other words, this is easy reading but it isn't silly. This is a compelling story about compelling people, by compelling people. The reader has every reason to care about the characters, many of whom are significant historical and religious figures, and all of whom are significant for being human. I find Chagdud Tulku and his mother, Delog Dawa Drolma, especially genuine and inevitable. The committee who wrote this book, inclusive of Chagdud Tulku's interpreters and students and editors and supporters, did their work with dignity and honesty and loving goodwill. Now, one purpose served by Lord of the Dance is to help new faces understand the historical integrity of the teachings Chagdud Rinpoche transmitted to this hemisphere, and the teachers he trained (note that Rinpoche broke ground in a major way by taking female students as seriously as the men and training them as lamas also). If a disciple of Chagdud Tulku comes to your town, or lives there already, I humbly suggest you show up, if you're interested in Buddha Dharma. You can see in the students he trained that Chagdud Tulku knew what he was doing. That kind of skillfulness and rigor is also apparent in Lord of the Dance, along with some insight into the Tibetan Diaspora's early history. Readers seeking close detail may be disappointed, though; Rinpoche paints a personal story with a broad brush. This ought not to prevent an earnest reader from learning quite a lot from this book, however. May the Dharma flourish!

a multi-layered life

Rebeccasreads offers kudos to the team of Lisa Leghorn, Tsering Everest & Jane Tromge, Chagdun Tulku's wife, for their ministrations in translating & massaging the Master's memories.Be prepared to read slowly, meditavely, as you follow this author along his long & winding road from conception on the Roof of the World to his recognition, at age three, as the incarnation of Tanpai Gyaltsan, the Chagdun Tulku; from mountain valleys & monastaries into trainings & retreats; on journeys fraught with travails few Western travelers can grasp, carrying little, hurrying from destruction toward his destiny, here in the West.Read LORD OF THE DANCE for the sheer adventure of it, about a rare time & a rare people. Notice the way the author describes things, especially his experiences of awareness; listen to the voice tell the tales so unlike any in the West; hear the humor & "see" the dreams, & your life will be enriched a thousand fold.

Riveting

Lord of the Dance is spellbinding. Don't expect to read a typical (boring) Buddhist book here. This memoir is filled with adventure and magic. From its opening chapters when a young tulku attempts to shoot his mother's boyfriend with an arrow through the tragic invasion of Tibet and into the heartbreaking sagas of the refugee camps in India, the reader is taken on an unforgetable and graceful journey. This book was hard for me to shake. It challenged what I believed and at the same time expanded my capacity for belief. Along the way, almost discretely, I became engaged in the inner workings of Tibetan Buddhism. The first time I read Lord of the Dance, I finished the book straight through in a matter of hours. It is beautifully rendered. If Marquez were to write about Tibet, you might have something of the world of Lord of the Dance.

Wisdom and adventure together! Extraordinary story!

Chagdud Tulku is one of the great meditation masters to come to the west, and a colorful, engaging personality. This candid account of his own life--growing up in Tibet, marriage, flight and exile--is good, exciting reading. It's also an inspiring story of the human spirit, containing extraordinary wisdom amidst the humor, joy and pain of this ordinary but very special life