The Social Life of Tibetan Biography explores the creation of Tibetan religious authority in Tibetan cultural areas throughout East, Inner, and South Asia through engaging with the relationship between textual biography and social community in the case of the Eastern Tibetan yogi Tokden Shakya Shri (1853–1919). It explores the different mechanisms used by Shakya Shri’s community in the creation of his biographical portrait to develop his lineage, including the use of biographical tropes, details of interpersonal connections, educational and patronage networks, and representations of sacred site creation and maintenance. In doing so, this study decenters Tibetan and Himalayan religious history through recognizing that peripheries could act as alternative centers of authority for diverse Tibetan Buddhist communities.

One of the most beloved stories of the Tibetan people and a great literary example of the contemplative life The Life of Milarepa, a biography and a dramatic tale from a culture now in crisis, can be read on several levels. A personal and moving introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, it is also a detailed guide to the search for liberation. It presents a quest for purification and buddhahood in a single lifetime, tracing the path of a great sinner who became a great saint. It is also a powerfully evocative narrative, full of magic, miracles, suspense, and humor, while reflecting the religious and social life of medieval Tibet. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Tashi Wangdi devoted his life to serve His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people in their peaceful and nonviolent struggle for truth, justice and freedom. He paints a riveting account of his life, starting with his happy childhood in Tibet, which was shattered in 1959, following the Chinese Communist invasion. After fleeing with his family to India, he was among the initial group of 25 students to be educated at the first school His Holiness established, soon after arriving in India. He dedicated the next 40 years of his life to the Tibetan cause, rising to the top leadership ranks in the Tibetan government in exile, serving as the Minister of 6 different portfolios and also as His Holiness' Representative in New Delhi, New York and Brussels. His detailed and fascinating first-hand account covers many seminal moments in the history of the Tibetan people in exile, including the beginnings of a nascent Tibetan government in exile, its negotiations with the Chinese government, and His Holiness receiving international recognition with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize, the US Congressional Gold Medal, and Honorary Canadian Citizenship, among others.

This book explores the devastating consequences and psychological ruptures of refugeehood as it evocatively recounts the life histories of dislocated Tibetans expelled from their homes since 1959. Following the genre of a story, the book offers dynamic understandings of unconscious processes and the intergenerational transmission of trauma across generations of an exiled and internally displaced people. The book analyses the paradoxical spaces which Tibetans in exile occupy as they strive to preserve their cultural and spiritual heritage, rituals, religion, and language while also dynamically remoulding themselves to adapt to their living realities. Presenting a nuanced picture, it narrates stories of refugees, political prisoners and survivors of torture along with stories of loss and angst, cultural celebrations and political demonstrations. The author in this new edition highlights and explores the art, artists, and poetry in the exiled community. The volume also looks at the significance of Buddhism and the philosophy of the Dalai Lama for the people in exile and the personal and collective will of the community to connect their lost past to a living present and an imagined future. Rooted in the psychoanalytical tradition, this book will be of interest to psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, scholars of literature, and arts and aesthetics. It will also appeal to those interested in Sino-Tibetan relations, Buddhist studies, South Asian Studies, cultural and peace studies, and those working with refugees, and displaced persons.

Required reading for students searching for a connection between medical training and social justice. Timothy Holtz's intimate recounting of a year spent serving Tibetan refugees in India describes his struggles with being unable, as one young physician with only a year to spend, to fix the many wrongs he witnessed. Holtz concludes that "practicing good medicine-whether in a modern city or an impoverished refugee community-is far more complex than opening up a magic bag and handing out its contents." Although Holtz may not be aware of it, his memoir is a testament to the fact that he did in fact learn to practice good medicine, and he has been at it ever since. His year in "Little Lhasa" led Holtz to deepen his understanding not only of clinical medicine, but of the social roots of disease and of the indivisibility of health and human rights, broadly conceived. Students and practitioners alike will find this book inspiring. - Paul E. Farmer, Presley Professor, Harvard Medical School; and Co-founder, Partners in Health Timothy Holtz's account is no romance about the joys of practicing medicine among Tibetan exiles in northern India. It is rather about people's suffering from diseases that should easily be prevented, a doctor's efforts to provide good care without the resources he should have, and a community's struggles to cope with the consequences of torture. Even more important for the practice of medicine, it is a story of how a doctor's duty to take care of patients is quite inseparable from seeking to protect their human rights. - Len Rubenstein, Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights Open this book to find a wonderful story about a transformative journey for a young physician. Timothy Holtz went to India with a purpose, to help Tibetan refugees in their struggle for a better life and better health. Little did he know how much his year working in a small hospital with few resources would change the trajectory of his life. Filled with stories that are both compassionate and humbling, it reminds us all that changing the world happens one person at a time. - Zorba Paster, Professor of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health; and Author of The Longevity Code - Your Personal Prescription for a Longer Sweeter Life In this warm and sensitive memoir, Timothy Holtz portrays the challenges confronting the Tibetan exile community in Dharamsala as it struggles to preserve its culture and traditions. In recounting heartwarming stories of illness and healing, Holtz also reveals his own personal path of growth and discovery as a physician. The episodes he tells are sobering, but also inspiring, such as fighting drug-resistant tuberculosis in newly arrived refugees, and assisting nuns who survived torture in their native Tibet only to face the hardships of an unfamiliar country. I recommend this book for anyone interested in better understanding the lives of Tibetans in exile, as they fight to survive and to safeguard their traditional culture and human dignity. - Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, Director, Emory-Tibet Partnership; and Spiritual Director, Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc.

Centuries have passed since the demise of many precapitalist agricultural states. Despite the British invasion of 1903 and the Chinese invasion in 1950, the Tibetan state continued to fully function until 1959. For this reason, this biography of George Tsarong not only provides new and in-depth perspectives on the life of an official of the Tibetan state, but it will also contribute to the comparative study of precapitalist states. This book weaves together history and biography to narrate the life of an aristocratic state official, his education and social life, his registration and entrance into a civil service career. It also describes the various personal and state political intrigues he was involved in and the many grand ceremonies that dominated the life of a state official. George Tsarong’s story is also the story of the fall of this traditional state and the complex social and psychological aspects of occupation, resistance, and exile.

Echoes of Enlightenment explores the issues of gender and sainthood raised by the recently discovered "liberation story" of the fourteenth-century Tibetan female Buddhist practitioner Sönam Peldren. Born in 1328, Sönam Peldren spent most of her adult life as a nomad in eastern Tibet until her death in 1372. She is believed to have been illiterate, lacking religious education, and unconnected to established religious institutions. For that reason, and because as a woman her claims of religious authority would have been constantly questioned, Sönam Peldren's success in legitimizing her claims of divine identity appear all the more remarkable. Today the site of her death is recognized as sacred by local residents. Suzanne Bessenger draws on the new-found biography of the saint to understand how the written record of the saint's life is shaped both by the hagiographical agendas of its multiple authors and by the dictates of the genres of Tibetan religious literature, including biography and poetry. She considers Sönam Peldren's enduring historical legacy as a fascinating piece of Tibetan history that reveals much about the social and textual machinations of saint production. Finally, she identifies Sönam Peldren as one of the earliest recorded instances of a historical Tibetan woman successfully using the uniquely Tibetan hermeneutic of deity emanation to achieve religious authority.