The Dance of 17 Lives: The Incredible True Story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa [Paperback]

Mick Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2005

The 17th Karmapa, one of the holiest figures in Tibetan Buddhism, arrived in Dharmsala as a fourteen-year-old boy in 2000, after an extraordinary escape across the Himalayas. Fascinated by this charismatic young figure, Mick Brown traveled to meet him, and found himself drawn into the labyrinthine web of intrigue surrounding the 17th Karmapa's recognition and early life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This intelligent and well-written biography-cum-travelogue explores the life of the 17th Karmapa, the teenage lama who fled Chinese-occupied Tibet in 2000 for India. Brown, a freelance journalist who began the book as a magazine article after the lama's daring escape, traces the Karmapa's story but also uses the account to give Western readers a quick sketch of the nature, history and perennial conflicts of Tibetan Buddhism. Unlike other Western writers who tend to romanticize Buddhism in Asia, Brown evenhandedly paints it as a religion that is as rife with political considerations and human foibles as it is with miraculous incarnations and incomparable teachers. At times the early historical chapters can be too detailed, but Brown's balanced tone serves him well, and the writing is superbly accessible. He is particularly interested in the 11 years that elapsed between the 16th Karmapa's death in 1981 and the recognition of his seven-year-old successor in 1992; Brown shows these years to be characterized by feuding and accusations among the 16th's closest disciples. In the later chapters, he also chronicles China's mid-1990s crackdown on Buddhist practitioners in Tibet who remained loyal to the Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese government labeled a dangerous villain. Far from being a mere report on the 17th Karmapa and his exodus, this is an excellent history of modern Tibetan Buddhism on a broad scale.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

China's brutal occupation of Tibet and efforts to quash Tibetan Buddhism have caused countless tragedies, engendering compelling tales of activism, valor, and loss. This "living" biography of Tibetans caught up in the struggle offer unusual insiders' perspectives. Some of the saddest and most puzzling incidents associated with China's occupation of Tibet involve conflicts over the recognized reincarnations of high lamas. The fate of the eleventh Panchen Lama is chronicled in Isabel Hilton's The Search for the Panchen Lama (2000). Now British journalist Brown covers the battle over the identity of the seventeenth Karmapa. Brown provides an enlightening explanation of the mystical process by which reincarnated lamas are found and identified, then launches a gripping account of the labyrinthine dispute between factions aligned behind two possible "emanations" of the sixteenth Karmapa. Tangled rumors, rivalries among lamas, a secret letter, gnarled court cases, and violence all feature in this complex and startling tale, as does the daring 1992 escape from Tibet by Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the then-14-year-old boy the Dalai Lama recognizes as the true seventeenth Karmapa. Brown's informative and frank portrait of the courageous young lama conveys the power of Tibetan Buddhism and the blight of "theological politics." Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (May 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582345988
• ISBN-13: 978-1582345987
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,655,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Story of Selecting a Reincarnated Leader, July 7, 2004

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dance of 17 Lives: The Incredible True Story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa (Hardcover)

In 1992, a six-year-old son of a nomadic yak herder was thrust into history. His family knew him to be special somehow, so he was not given an official name; he was known by them as Apo Gaga ("happy brother"). And then the highest of the Tibetan Buddhists realized that he was the reincarnation of Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Karmapa, who had died in 1981. The resurrection line of Karmapas goes back centuries before that of even the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. Apo Gaga then became "His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje". The story of his selection and his headline-making flight from Tibet in 2000 is told in _The Dance of 17 Lives: The Incredible True Story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa_ (Bloomsbury) by Mick Brown. Brown, a journalist who has covered religious subjects before, is not a Buddhist, and indeed his own religious ideas are not part of this book, which is an astonishingly impartial view of the sometimes controversial and (to those of a different religious persuasion) often utterly weird process of making a new divine hereditary leader.

Brown's book gives a history of Buddhism as it relates to the Karmapa line. The first Karmapa was born in 1110 CE, at the age of fifty. He was omniscient and was able to pass through rocks and mountains. He predicted he would be reborn many times, and starting a tradition, he left a letter specifying how the next Karmapa could be found. When the beloved 16th Karmapa died in 1981, there was a puzzling interval when no such letter could be found. One of his monks eventually produced an amulet the 16th had given him, and it contained a prediction that was to lead to Apo Gaga, who was enthroned as 17th Karmapa in 1992 at age seven. This succession has been controversial; another monk has claimed the amulet document was a forgery and has put forward his own choice of successor, but the Dalai Lama has given all official approval to the current 17th. The Chinese communists, who dislike all religions, amazingly accepted the 17th as a "Living Buddha", in an attempt to get a Buddhist leader under their sway. The 17th Karmapa and a few close associates made plans for a perilous winter trek over the Himalayas and into India. By foot, jeep, and helicopter, he made a daring escape to an eventual exile along with the Dalai Lama.

Brown has interviewed the 17th Karmapa (as he has the Dalai Lama, and most of the individuals he profiles), and has been impressed. "He was, patently, a fifteen-year-old boy; yet like no fifteen-year-old I had met before." He had composure and authority to a disconcerting degree: "There is something dazzling about him." He has had a life of study rather than play, but devotees have donated to him plenty of toys through the years. Amusingly, when he made his prediction of where the reincarnated descendant from another line would be found, to show the house that should be targeted, the Karmapa made a model with his Lego set. It is this sort of clash between modern and ancient or religious and worldly that makes _The Dance of 17 Lives_ so fascinating. The Dalai Lama is now 69 years old, and when he dies, Tibetan exiles all over the world will be looking toward the 17th Karmapa as a unifying symbol and perhaps a successor. We are used to seeing the Dalai Lama as an elder statesman, but if this description of the 17th Karmapa is true, we can expect a young man to fit in just as well.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and fair, July 13, 2004

By 

Reader (Toronto, ON) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dance of 17 Lives: The Incredible True Story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa (Hardcover)

Brown is the first independent writer to look at the complex story of the Karmapa succession, and the dispute which has arisen out of it. This has led to the situation where there are two boys, with their respective sets of supporters both claiming that they are the Karmpa. One boy, Ogyen Trinley, is recognised by most of the Karma Kagyu school, the Dalai Lama and the vast majority of Tibetans. The other is recognised by a small breakaway faction, which, among other things, accuses the Dalai Lama of plotting to take over the Karma Kagyu. This is a story which makes the intrigues of the medieval popes look as innocent and straightforward as a school board meeting. But Brown - a veteran journalist - tells this complicated tale with remarkable clarity. The pace is brisk. And the reporting of what is a controversial subject is done in a even-handed way, with both sides of the dispute given equal airtime. A lively, fascinating read that's essential for anyone interested in Tibetan Buddhism, and particularly Tibetan Buddhist politics, but also rewarding for the layperson.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Confirms my experience, February 12, 2008

By 

Corinna "ulli344" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dance of 17 Lives: The Incredible True Story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa (Paperback)

I have been a Tibetan Buddhist for 25 years and I have lived through all the upheaval described in this book that caused a parallel upheaval in our local Buddhist centre. I enjoyed this book a great deal because it confirmed everything I knew about the conflict. So I have no real reason to doubt the authenticity of the rest of the book.