Lord of the Dance: Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama [Paperback]

Chagdud Tulku (Author), Chagdud (Author), Ken Wilber (Designer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1992

Son of Dawa Drolma, one of Tibet's most renowned female lamas, Chagdud Rinpoche was recognized early in life as a "tulku", or incarnation of a realized master, and was rigorously trained by many great lamas. Forced into exile by the Chinese invasion, his was the last generation to inherit the highest teachings and methods of Buddhism in Tibet. This candid autobiography helps Westerners understand the astonishing culture that is bound up with Vajrayana teachings.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, a renowned and highly revered Vajrayana Buddhist Master, lived in exile in India and Nepal for two decades, serving his fellow refugees as both lama and physician. He came to the West in 1979 at the invitation of American students, and in 1983 established Chagdud Gonpa Foundation, which now has over 20 centers around the world. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche currently lives and teaches in Brazil.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Padma Publishing (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1881847004
• ISBN-13: 978-1881847007
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,259,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, August 28, 2001

By 

Lee Durkee (Colchester, VT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lord of the Dance: Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama (Paperback)

Lord of the Dance is spellbinding. Don't expect to read a typical (boring) Buddhist book here. This memoir is filled with adventure and magic. From its opening chapters when a young tulku attempts to shoot his mother's boyfriend with an arrow through the tragic invasion of Tibet and into the heartbreaking sagas of the refugee camps in India, the reader is taken on an unforgetable and graceful journey. This book was hard for me to shake. It challenged what I believed and at the same time expanded my capacity for belief. Along the way, almost discretely, I became engaged in the inner workings of Tibetan Buddhism. The first time I read Lord of the Dance, I finished the book straight through in a matter of hours. It is beautifully rendered. If Marquez were to write about Tibet, you might have something of the world of Lord of the Dance.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blessings of the Iron Knot Lama, May 8, 2005

By 

Myron Makewater "redcrosseknight" (Laramie) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lord of the Dance: Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama (Paperback)

Lord of the Dance is a direct and uncontrived outline of the most recent Chagdud Tulku's life, particularly his experiences in Central Asia and India. Given the apparently supernatural nature (if you will) of many of the events narrated, the stylistic approach of this text is not unlike a journalistic sort of magical realism. This vision and that miracle are as real as the rotting tomatoes in the Tibetan refugee camp, and the reader needs little convincing of this. In other words, this is easy reading but it isn't silly.

This is a compelling story about compelling people, by compelling people. The reader has every reason to care about the characters, many of whom are significant historical and religious figures, and all of whom are significant for being human. I find Chagdud Tulku and his mother, Delog Dawa Drolma, especially genuine and inevitable. The committee who wrote this book, inclusive of Chagdud Tulku's interpreters and students and editors and supporters, did their work with dignity and honesty and loving goodwill.

Now, one purpose served by Lord of the Dance is to help new faces understand the historical integrity of the teachings Chagdud Rinpoche transmitted to this hemisphere, and the teachers he trained (note that Rinpoche broke ground in a major way by taking female students as seriously as the men and training them as lamas also). If a disciple of Chagdud Tulku comes to your town, or lives there already, I humbly suggest you show up, if you're interested in Buddha Dharma. You can see in the students he trained that Chagdud Tulku knew what he was doing.

That kind of skillfulness and rigor is also apparent in Lord of the Dance, along with some insight into the Tibetan Diaspora's early history. Readers seeking close detail may be disappointed, though; Rinpoche paints a personal story with a broad brush. This ought not to prevent an earnest reader from learning quite a lot from this book, however.

May the Dharma flourish!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wisdom and adventure together! Extraordinary story!, June 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Lord of the Dance: Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama (Paperback)

Chagdud Tulku is one of the great meditation masters to come to the west, and a colorful, engaging personality. This candid account of his own life--growing up in Tibet, marriage, flight and exile--is good, exciting reading. It's also an inspiring story of the human spirit, containing extraordinary wisdom amidst the humor, joy and pain of this ordinary but very special life