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 TIBET, TIBET, A PERSONAL HISTORY OF A LOST LAND
By Patrick French
Reviewed by Michael Rank
TIBET has long exerted a strange hold over the Western imagination as a land of mystery and wisdom, whose people possess the secrets of true happiness and the meaning of life. They are also seen as a martyred people, victims of half a century of Chinese occupation that is sometimes equated with genocide. But much that has been written about Tibet is highly superficial, based on the authors’ idea of what Tibet ought to be like rather than any objective reality - what the mountaineer F. Spencer Chapman memorably called “the real Tibet of my imagination”. more...
Buddha's Not Smiling
Uncovering Corruption at the Heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today by Erik D. Curren
Book explores schism between Buddhists
Reviewed By Alice Mannette
STAUNTON — Erik Curren of Staunton had worked in public relations, seen the fast life and wanted to regroup. A little more than 11 years ago, he investigated Buddhism, became intrigued and began to practice. He loved Tibetan Buddhism's integrity, the ability to meditate and the practice of "thinking for yourself," he said. But then he heard something that perplexed him. A schism had occurred between several lamas — Tibetan Buddhist religious leaders. "When I found out about this controversy a lot of doubts arose in my mind," Curren said. "I started thinking, were these Buddhist teachers following their own precepts?" more...
Music in the Sky
Revelations of a Tibetan monk by Michele Martin
Reviewed By Tsering Namgyal 23 December 2003 Asian Times
When the teenaged Karmapa Lama fled from Tibet to India in January 2000, he renewed the hopes of many Tibetans exiled in that country. Orgyen Trinley Dorje is recognized - at least in some quarters - as the reincarnation of the widely popular 16th Karmapa - head of monastery - of the important Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, which has its headquarters in Sikkim, a small state run by India but claimed by China. more...
Buddha's Not Smiling
Uncovering Corruption at the Heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today by Erik D. Curren
Reviewed By Lama Karma Wangchuk
You may know that there has been a lot of publishing activity in the last few years on the controversy around the recognition of the seventeenth Karmapa. The Karmapa is the first reincarnated lama of Tibet and one of Buddhism's most venerated masters. As it turns out, he is also famous enough in the West to inspire four books in English, all published in 2003 and 2004. Unfortunately, the authors of these books show a unanimity of opinion that makes me wonder if they started their books together in the same coffee klatch. more...
The Karmapa's Dance of Politics
Reviewed by Sonny Inbaraj
It is over five years since a 14-year-old Tibetan monk made a dramatic escape over the Himalayas to India, travelling over 1,500 kilometres from his monastery in Tibet, evading Chinese border troops and risking death by exposure to the cold. The monk was the 17th Karmapa, one of Tibet's most important religious leaders. Every year, more than a thousand Tibetans continue to risk their lives, defying Chinese- imposed restrictions on travel by secretly making the arduous and dangerous Himalayan crossing into Nepal and India. more...
A review of the two new Karmapa books
Reviewed by Mary Finnigan March 2004
I suppose no-one with any degree of interest in Tibetan Buddhism should be surprised at the publication this year of two books about the Karmapa - and the history, mystery and intrigue that surrounds his present incarnation. Most people with an average interest in current affairs would probably not be surprised either - assuming that their memories extend back to 1 January 2000 - when the world woke up to the new millennium -- and the news that a 15 year old Tibetan boy living under close Chinese guard had managed to escape to India. more...
Rogues in Robes
Reviewed By Michael Barroclough
I have been asked to write a review for a book entitled "Rogues in Robes" by Tomkey Lehnert. The subject of which is the dispute and events surrounding the recognition of two candidates for Karmapa. This is a debate which I find rather futile, as we will perceive Karmapa in accordance with our individual karma; some will perceive him as all-pervading Buddha activity, whilst others won't even hear his name. The means for perceiving Karmapa and the blessing from the lineage is through genuine practice and pure aspirations, not the debate (war as this author calls it) and mud slinging through the medium of the media more...
The Buddha Cries
Reviewed By Baljit Singh
THE author, a senior journalist with The Hindustan Times, describes his book as a "chronicle of rogues in robes..... a racy potboiler depicting the seamy" struggles of venerated Tibetan reincarnations, spiritual gurus who trace their roots far back in antiquity to the Buddha and even earlier. And he lives up to the claim. The account is littered with tales of monks smuggling gold on diplomatic passports, indulging in drunken orgies, conspiring in forgeries and assassinations. There is even a guru’s steamy affairs with his disciple, another accused by male lovers of infecting them with AIDS, culminating in the final ignominy of the senior Regent actually dying of AIDS. more...
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