Customer Reviews

Lord of the Dance: Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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

Rebeccasreads offers kudos to the team of Lisa Leghorn, Tsering Everest & Jane Tromge, Chagdun Tulku's wife, for their ministrations in translating & massaging the Master's memories.

Be prepared to read slowly, meditavely, as you follow this author along his long & winding road from conception on the Roof of the World to his recognition, at age three, as the incarnation of Tanpai Gyaltsan, the Chagdun Tulku; from mountain valleys & monastaries into trainings & retreats; on journeys fraught with travails few Western travelers can grasp, carrying little, hurrying from destruction toward his destiny, here in the West.

Read LORD OF THE DANCE for the sheer adventure of it, about a rare time & a rare people. Notice the way the author describes things, especially his experiences of awareness; listen to the voice tell the tales so unlike any in the West; hear the humor & "see" the dreams, & your life will be enriched a thousand fold.

This is a great story, on many levels - a personal adventure, a spiritual journey, a cultural history, - it is engaging and fun to read but it also has some major faults. Perhaps I notice these so much because I read this directly after finishing Tulku Urgyen's wonderful memoir BLAZING SPLENDOR. That spiritual/cultural memoir was so good I wanted to start reading it again as soon as I finished it (subtle, humorous, understated and deep), but that is a different book. I mention this for perspective. This tale (and Lama) is different, more dramatic and revealing (grandiose even, and not the "hidden yogi" as Tulku Urgyen's ideal), but I also get the strong sense of the story being retold for a select audience. I had a harder time hearing Chagdud Tulku's voice in the telling, instead often thinking more of the interpreters and editors. This lack of authenticity is irritating, yet the story is so engaging that this can be ignored most of the time.

Another complaint of mine is the story is rich in detail in the few years leading up to and following Rinpoche's escape, but seriously lacking once he comes to the West. Instead of covering the transmission of the teachings to Westerners (itself probably a fascinating aspect of any Tibetan Lama's life, and so far something I haven't read much detail about), and all the places he visited and activities he accomplished in the last third of his life, he only mentions returning to Tibet to visit briefly in 1987, and makes only passing reference to his Western students (other than his wife Jane). Eventhough it was probably a big deal for him personally - in terms of Chagdud Tulku's dharma activity, this return to Tibet (and a monastery he was only peripherally connected to in this life) was a minor event compared to the students and practice centers he established in North and South America! I was left feeling only half the story had been told. (Perhaps since the story was filtered through these very students they were reluctant to ask for or write about their own part of his story. This is a shame).

It would be nice if any new edition had an afterword included to summerize his impact and experience in the West as well as give a better, more objective, overview of his accomplishments. Chagdud Rinpoche was a true renaissance man - not only a tantric and dzogchen master, but also an energetic and tireless teacher, puja leader (and umze), builder (dharma center establisher), artist (sculptor, painter, singer and story teller), and traditional medical doctor. This range and depth of experience really doesn't come across in this memoir. As well, some maps of Tibet, Nepal and India showing his place of birth and route of escape, to help make his life and travels more understandable, would make any new edition much better.

Even more bothering is how this tale, although told with candor, also reinforces the stereotype of Tibet being a land of faith, magic and mystery and the West being a place of practical work, drives and emotions. It would have been interesting to hear the same kind of mystic/dream/synchronistic stories told about his life in the West.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this memoir is how this Tulku was born with such amazing spiritual abilities and realized even more through this life's practice, but still had major personal mundane issues. Some examples are how he tried to kill his step-father as a small child, or as a young teen cheated a bit on his preliminary practices or as an adult wanted to punch someone for reprimanding him for standing on a cushion, while straining for a view, during a major empowerment at Samye Monastery. He only just held himself back remembering where he was, who he was with, and how he should behave, then he felt bad for such a negative reaction. This is great in many ways, it shows us that we are all normal people with ordinary delusions, it shows how some monks and lamas in Tibet had become somehow spoiled and corrupt in their privileged stature (and shows Chagdud Tulku's humanity and honesty and unease in this regard), it also shows that mere practice and realization isn't enough..... There is always the need for mindfulness, always the danger of ego's temptation and fall from grace. It is sobering to think a high lama who can tie knots in his sword is in many ways just like us....

This book is very precious, for sure it cannot tell enough how marvellous was Chagdud Tulku Rimpoche, buy it will inspire the reader and give a glimpse of his personality and some of his memories shared with his western students.

Now there is a new edition of it:
Lord of the Dance: Autobiography of a Tibetan Lama

If you are new to Buddhism and want to find out more about Chagdud Rimpoche I suggest reading The Gates of Practice - Gates to Buddhist Practice: Essential Teachings of a Tibetan Master

Congratulations to all involved on the creation of this book.

May all benefit,

The late Chagdud Tulku has left one of the best Tibetan memoirs for us. Non Buddhists can read it a bit like an adventure story or another autobiography or perhaps to get a clearer picture of the communist takeover. Buddhists from altogether different traditions can read it to glimpse the on-the-spot teachings dealing with duality and the magical benefits entering the human psyche through dreams & visions.
This is a great gift to us practitioners. He mentions many of his retreats in practices that we do now. These amazing systems that he and many others have brought out into the west to share. Also for people who have leanings in these directions it clearly shows that a system exists and has existed and is accessible, there are options for the questioning mind.

Doing practice is great however reading some books ABOUT Buddhism is dull indeed. This book is a gem. I hope some of his magnetism finds its way directly to many readers. He was awesome in real life.

The book doesn't really gives an idea of the man, the compassionate and kind Chagdud, but even so it is remarkable and it's worth every penny. It is very interesting even to those outside the buddhist tradition. Rinpoche is now here in South Brazil, building a traditional temple and revealing the pure and ortodox tibetan Dharma to this sunny side of the globe.