The Magical Adventures of the Sixth Dalai Lama - by Annie Bien & Robert Thurman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Annie Bien and Robert Thurman lead you through The Magical Adventures of The Sixth Dalai Lama: His Life and Loves, a historical novel on the life and world of the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (1683-1706). Based on period sources and official biographies, his life unfolds in the form of a third level Tibetan biography, a secret liberation story that reveals the meditative state and actions of a siddha, an accomplished master or saint. His poetry sings the narrative thread of his life, revealing his magical activist deeds to shape the complex relationships entangling Tibet and to benefit the surrounding countries of Mongolia, China, and India, while offering a vision of future benefit to the whole planet, including the West. This story explores the possibility that the Sixth Dalai Lama renounced his monk's vows to channel his holy messiah's love of living beings into the life of a layperson, to descend from iconic isolation in his monastic Potala palace to be nearer to the lives of his people, protect his Tibetan nation and its lay and monastic communities, pacify the war-torn Central Asian geopolitics of Mongol and Manchu conquerors and their Chinese subjects, and promote the sophisticated spiritual sciences, freedom-loving culture, and mystical language of his beloved Tibet. The Sixth Dalai Lama's love poems are filled with humor and longing, joy and dismay, with expressions that touch the profound and evoke the essence of being human.

About the Author

Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, President of Tibet House US, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization, and President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies. The New York Times recently hailed him as "the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism."