In this rich and deeply personal account of life in the highlands of Nepal, Geoff Childs chronicles the daily existence of a range of people, from venerated lamas to humble householders. Offering insights into the complex dynamics of the ethnically Tibetan enclave of Nubri, Childs provides a vivid and compelling portrait of the ebb and flow of life and death, of communal harmony and discord, and of personal conflicts and social resolutions. Part ...
It is not possible to understand contemporary politics between China and the Dalai Lama without understanding what happened in the 1950s, especially the events that occurred in 1957–59. The fourth volume of Melvyn C. Goldstein's History of Modern Tibet series, <I>In the Eye of the Storm</I>, provides new perspectives on Sino-Tibetan history during the period leading to the Tibetan Uprising of 1959. The volume also r ...
The truth of Chan Buddhism—better known as “Zen”—is regularly said to be beyond language, and yet Chan authors—medieval and modern—produced an enormous quantity of literature over the centuries. To make sense of this well-known paradox, <I>Patriarchs on Paper</I> explores several genres of Chan literature that appeared during the Tang and Song dynasties (c. ...
Philip Whalen was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and key figure in the literary and artistic scene that unfolded in San Francisco in the 1950s and ’60s. When the Beat writers came West, Whalen became a revered, much-loved member of the group. Erudite, shy, and profoundly spiritual, his presence not only moved his immediate circle of Beat cohorts, but his powerful, startling, innovative work would come to impact American poetry to the present da ...
It is not possible to fully understand contemporary politics between China and the Dalai Lama without understanding what happened in the 1950’s. The third volume in Melvyn Goldstein's History of Modern Tibet series, <i>The Calm before the Storm</i>, examines the critical years of 1955 through 1957. During this period, the Preparatory Committee for a Tibet Autonomous Region was inaugurated in Lhasa, and a major Tibetan uprising o ...
In considering medieval illustrated Buddhist manuscripts as sacred objects of cultic innovation, <i>Receptacle of the Sacred</i> explores how and why the South Asian Buddhist book-cult has survived for almost two millennia to the present. A book «manuscript» should be understood as a form of sacred space: a temple in microcosm, not only imbued with divine presence but also layered with the memories of many generations of users. Jinah ...
Most eastern religious traditions are based on the sacred bond between teacher or Guru and the student. This is one of the few books to delve deeply into the subject based on wide ranging interviews with both teachers and students. The foreword by Ken Wilber, who is the foremost, widely recognized authority on the subject matter confers a stamp of legitimacy on this title for many spiritual seekers. The book features interviews of several very w ...
