Memoirs of a Tibetan Lama [Paperback]

Lobsang Gyatso (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1990

A Tibetan patriot and unswerving follower of the Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso emerges from these memoirs as a master storyteller, a fearless social critic, and a devoted Buddhist monk.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Have you ever wondered what it's like to live in a Tibetan monastery? Honeysuckle sweetness, pure spirituality, monks walking on air? Not quite. Although some Western writers have tried to turn premodern Tibet into a kind of spiritual utopia, Lobsang Gyatso, a monk for much of this century, has a more mundane story to tell. A monastery is like a small city, in which money and politics have as much to do with daily life as meditation and study, perhaps more. Lobsang Gyatso describes his own spiritual journey, from his early days as a pugnacious fighter, his discovery of the wonders of study, his struggle with monastery duties, such as collecting debts and holding house office, to his personal crisis during the great escape after the Chinese invasion, and finally his associating with the Dalai Lama and his efforts educating the exiled Tibetan youth. Lobsang Gyatso is nothing if not honest, and his bringing monastery life down to human level makes his own trials and realizations that much more relevant to the rest of us. In the end his honesty got him murdered, but the strength of his spirit lives on in his memoirs. --Brian Bruya

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Snow Lion Publications (January 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559390972
• ISBN-13: 978-1559390972
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,061,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars important addition to Western literature on Tibet, July 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Memoirs of a Tibetan Lama (Paperback)

This book is a good antidote to the Western fantasy that all Tibetans are enlightened beings and the dream that the Tibetan monastery is a utopia. Lobsang Gyatso is a monk who comes through the ranks (rather than an incarnation); the tale of his mischievous childhood, struggles to study, and life in exile let the reader see how much work a life dedicated to religious practice is. Iconoclastic, frank, and sometimes hilarious, Lobsang Gyatso comes across as a practical and devoted monk. And despite the fact that readers are told early on that Lobsang Gyatso was murdered in 1997, the editor's account of his brutal killing comes as a shock, as it adds another painful story to the debate over the status of Dorje Shugden.