A remarkable work of historical insight and dramatic power. Rice and Cole present a riveting history of the Chinese invasion of Tibet that highlights the plight of adherents of the ancient Bön religion. Relatively few have heard of the Bön religion despite the fact that it was long the dominant spiritual practice in Tibet. Ultimately,…
This book presents fascinating life stories of three Bön monks, Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, Samten Karmay, and Sangye Tenzin, who later became the thirty-third abbot of Menri Monastery, the seat of Bön religion, the oldest religion of Tibet. The book, however, is much more than stories about the monks’ escaping from war-ravaged Tibet, about their…
They had watched their guide walk away, disappearing into a thick mist. A sudden hailstorm covered the guide’s tracks in the frozen snow, leaving Geshe Yondong and nine other bewildered Tibetans in a strange, frozen landscape high in the Himalayas. They were lost. Geshe Yondong wondered how long they could survive in the cold. He…
We wanted to share with you escape stories we were unable to include in the book that illustrate the immense difficulties that had to be overcome by Tibetans fleeing Chinese oppression. The first is the story of Chime Tsering, a librarian with a quick mind who was helpful in researching our book. Chime Tsering Chime…