History, Activism & Politics
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THE BUDDHA FROM DOLPO: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen by Cyrus Stearns; a Tsadra Foundation Series book 496 pp., 16 illust., 8 color plates, cloth. #BUFRDO - list price $ 39.95 Our Price $27.97 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion "This revised edition of Cyrus Stearns's The Buddha from Dölpo is a must read for all interested in the intellectual history of Tibet. New translations of some of the key works of Dolpopa open philosophical and cosmological ideas of one of the great thinkers of the Tibetan tradition. This is a marvelous piece of scholarship."—E. Gene Smith, founder and senior research scholar, Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center More ... | |
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BUDDHISM THROUGH AMERICAN WOMEN'S EYES edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo 2nd edition, 180 pp., paper. #BUAM2E - list price $ 16.95 Our Price $11.86 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion The Buddha's path to human transformation declares women and men equally capable of spiritual realization, yet throughout history most exemplars of this tradition have been men. Now, as Buddhism is transmitted to the West, women are playing a major role in its adaptation and development. More ... | |
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THE CLEAR MIRROR: A Traditional Account of Tibet's Golden Age by Sakyapa Sonam Gyaltsen, translated by McComas Taylor and Lama Choedak Yuthok 315 pp., 16 line drawings, 2 maps. #CLMI - list price $ 16.95 Our Price $11.86 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion A rich blend of history, legend, poetry, adventure and romance, The Clear Mirror is a treasure-trove of traditional Tibetan narrative and folk wisdom. It presents in full the often-cited but elusive accounts of the origins of the Tibetan people, the coming of the Dharma to Tibet, and the appearance of Avalokiteshvara as the patron deity of Tibet. The text treats the era during which Buddhism came to Tibet, Lhasa became the capital, and the Jokhang and Ramoche temples were founded. Written to inform and entertain, the book has a pre-eminent position in Tibetan society and is popular today. More ... | |
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THE GOLDEN YOKE: The Legal Cosmology of Buddhist Tibet by Rebecca Redwood French 424 pp., 7" x 10", 81 b&w illustrations. #GOYOK - list price $ 21.95 Our Price $15.36 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion "To read the Golden Yoke is to walk into the daily life of Tibet last century and centuries before, go with a monk official to consult a tome of land titles kept in a monastic cellar, and then to the fields to find buried boundary markers of white and black stones, in order to settle a dispute among neighbors. It is to marvel at the sophistication of an ancient, literate, humanely organized society, that tries to maintain Buddhist ethical principles in its institutions, laws, and practices. More ... | |
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HISTORY OF THE KARMAPAS: The Odyssey of the Tibetan Masters with the Black Crown by Lama Kunsang, Lama Pemo, and Marie Aubèle Pre-order Now--Available March 2012. 332 pp., 22 color photos, 4 b&w photos, 30 illus., paper. #HIKAOD - list price $ 21.95 Our Price $15.36 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion Masters of esoteric knowledge and miraculous practices, the lineage of the Karmapas descends from the great Indian tantric master Tilopa through a chain that includes Naropa, Marpa, and Milarepa. The Karmapas are distinguished by their black crowns, said to have been woven by dakinis and symbolizing the activity of the buddhas. | |
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IN THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY: The Biography of Dasang Damdul Tsarong, Commander General of Tibet by D. N. Tsarong 164 pp., 43 b&w photos. #SEHICO - list price $ 14.95 Our Price $10.46 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion "One of the best books...for introducing students and general readers to modern Tibetan history before the cultural revolution"--The Journal of Asian Studies More ... | |
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KING OF THE EMPTY PLAIN: The Tibetan Iron Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo by Cyrus Stearns, a Tsadra Foundation Series book Cloth edition, 704 pp. #TAGYKI - list price $ 49.95 Our Price $34.97 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion The legendary Buddhist master Tangtong Gyalpo (1361?-1485), "King of the Empty Plain," is familiar to every Tibetan, yet nearly unknown in the rest of the world. His incredible lifespan, profound teachings, unprecedented engineering feats, eccentric deeds, and creation of Tibetan opera have earned this fascinating figure a unique status in Tibetan culture. Believed to be the great Indian master Padmasambhava appearing again in the world to benefit living beings, Tangtong Gyalpo discovered techniques for achieving longevity that are still held in highest esteem and frequently taught six hundred years later. His construction of fifty-eight iron suspension bridges, sixty wooden bridges, 118 ferries, 111 stupa monuments, and countless temples and monasteries in Tibet and Bhutan remains an awe-inspiring accomplishment. More ... | |
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LABRANG: A Tibetan Buddhist Monastery at the Crossroads of Four Civilizations by Paul Kocot Nietupski, photos from the Griebenow Archives, 1921-1949 160 pp., 9" x 8" high, 36 color and 100 b&w photos, illustrations. #LA - list price $ 24.95 Our Price $17.46 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion Labrang Monastery, located in northeast Tibet at the strategic intersection of four major Asian civilizations--Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese, and Muslim--was one of the largest Buddhist monastic universities. In the early twentieth century, it housed several thousand monks. Labrang was also a gathering point for numerous annual religious festivals, supported an active regional marketplace where Chinese artisans rubbed shoulders with Hui merchants and nomadic Tibetan highlanders, and was the seat of a Tibetan power base that strove to maintain regional autonomy through the shifting alliances and bloody conflicts that took place between 1700 and 1950. More ... | |
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MUSIC IN THE SKY: The Life, Art and Teachings of the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje by Michele Martin. 400 pp., 59 color photos, 2 maps, drawings by the Karmapa. #MUSK - list price $ 18.95 Our Price $13.27 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion As the second millennium drew to a close, the Seventeenth Karmapa leapt from the roof at his monastery in Tibet. Evading his Chinese guards, the 14-year-old spiritual leader began a grueling, dangerous journey to India. The Karmapa's picture has appeared all over the world since then, yet his own words are hard to find. Now, for the first time in print, Music in the Sky offers a series of the Karmapa's profound teachings, an extensive selection of his poetry, and a detailed and gripping account of his life and flight from his homeland. Readers will be captivated by this wonderfully accessible and profound book. More ... | |
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NIGUMA, LADY OF ILLUSION by Sarah Harding, a Tsadra Foundation Series book 392 pp., 1 line drawing, cloth. #NIGUMA - list price $ 32.95 Our Price $23.07 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion Providing a rare glimpse of feminine Buddhist history, Niguma, Lady of Illusion brings to the forefront the life and teachings of a mysterious eleventh-century Kashmiri woman who became the source of a major Tibetan Buddhist practice lineage. The circumstances of her life and extraordinary qualities ascribed to her are analyzed in the greater context of spiritual biography and Buddhist doctrine. More than an historical presentation, Niguma's story raises the question of women as real spiritual leaders versus male images of "feminine principle" and other related contemporary issues. More ... | |
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SKY BURIAL: An Eyewitness Account of China's Brutal Crackdown in Tibeet by Blake Kerr, photos by John Ackerly, foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, intro. by Heinrich Harrer 186 pp. #SKBU - list price $ 12.95 Our Price $9.06 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion "Sky Burial is the distilled truth—alternately tragic, hilarious, and rousing—of two young Americans' exposure to the joyous spirit of the Tibetan people and their courageous struggle to survive under the brutal subjugation of Chinese communist rule. It is a vivid portrait of a critical moment in Tibet's modern history. An evocative, endearing, and invaluable book."—John Avedon, author ofIn Exile from the Land of Snows More ... | |
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THE TREASURY OF KNOWLEDGE, Books Two, Three, and Four: Buddhism's Journey to Tibet by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, trans. and intro. by Ngawang Zangpo of the Kalu Rinpoche Translation Group, under the direction of Khenpo Lodro Donyo Rinpoche Cloth, 692 pp. #TRKN23 - list price $ 49.95 Our Price $34.97 (you save 30%) Published by Snow Lion Jamgön Kongtrul’s ten-volume Treasury of Knowledge is a unique encyclopedic masterpiece embodying the entire range of Buddhist teachings as they were preserved in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhist teachers expected their students to study Buddhist philosophical texts as well as practice reflection and meditation; present-day students have also realized that awakening has its source in study as well as in reflection and practice. More ... | |
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THE AWAKENED ONE: A Life of the Buddha by Sherab Chodzin Kohn 176 pp., paper. #AWON - list price $ 19.95 Our Price $13.96 (you save 30%) The story of the founder of Buddhism is one of the world's great archetypal tales of spiritual awakening. He was born Siddhartha Gautama in the sixth century BCE, the son of a prince who ruled a small kingdom in what is now Nepal. Siddhartha led a sheltered existence until the age of twenty-nine, when he left his life of ease and set out to find a solution to the problem of suffering. For years he wandered as a homeless ascetic, practicing severe austerities that brought him to the brink of death but no nearer to his goal. He then abandoned asceticism for a "middle way." Sitting down under a tree, he vowed to remain there until he realized the truth. After a night of deep meditation, his Enlightenment came at dawn, and he was thereafter known as the Buddha, the "Awakened One." More ... | |
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THE BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHINGS edited by Samuel Bercholz and Sherab Chodzin Kohn 352 pp, paper, 53 b & w illustrations. #BUANHI - $ 18.95 Originally published as Entering the Stream, this book offers a simple and inspiring answer to the question "What is the Buddha's teaching?" primarily in the words of the Buddha and other masters. This anthology draws on traditional Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan sources as well as teachings by contemporary Buddhist masters. Among the contributors, both classical and modern, are: Ajahn Chah, Pema Chödrön, The Second Dalai Lama, Dogen, S.N. Goenka, Dainin Katagiri, Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi, Milarepa, Padmasambhava, Reginald Ray, Shunryu Suzuki, Nyanaponika Thera, Thich Nhat Hanh, Chögyam Trungpa, and Burton Watson. More ... | |
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BUDDHIST WOMEN IN A GLOBAL MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITY edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo 338 pp., 16 full-page full-color images, hardbound. #BUWOGL - $ 10.00 Buddhist women today live in a global village that connects people in every corner of the world. In this new global community, all aspects of Buddhist thought and culture are drawing international attention. Against this background, the 9th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women met in Kuala Lumpur to discuss Buddhist women's roles. Representatives of more than 25 countries engaged in this discourse concerning the pressing needs in meeting the demands created by globalization, to share cultural links, expand their thinking, and work together to create entirely new structures. This conference served as a starting point for this book. More ... | |
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DIGNITY AND DISCIPLINE: The Evolving Role of Women in Buddhism by Dr. Thea Mohr and Bhikshuni Jampa Tsedroen 352 pp. #DIDIEV - list price $ 18.95 Our Price $15.16 (you save 20%) Many of the issues surrounding bhiksuni (nun) ordination in Tibetan Buddhism are shared by other parts of the Buddhist world. While some regard the bhiksuni ordination movement to be largely driven by Western Buddhist converts, efforts to revive the female order have actually been initiated by various progressive Asian monks and nuns over the last century. This is a collection of essays taken from a global conference on bhiksuni ordination from all traditions that took place in Hamburg, Germany. The essays in this book cover the breadth of Buddhist traditions and convey the history and the vision for the future of the role of women as ambassadors and curators of the ordained Buddhist community. | |
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DISCOVERY, RECOGNITION AND ENTHRONEMENT OF THE 14TH DALAI LAMA a collection of accounts by Khemey Sonam Wangdu, Sir Basil J. Gould, and Hugh E. Richardson 128 pp., 8 b&w photos. #DIREEN - list price $ 9.95 Our Price $7.96 (you save 20%) The discovery, recognition and enthronement of Tibetan Lamas have always been mystical and strange for Westerners, while at the same time fascinating and intriguing to behold. Here are three accounts written by witnesses to the actual events during the discovery, recognition and enthronement of the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. More ... | |
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ESCAPE FROM THE LAND OF SNOWS: The Young Dalai Lama's Harrowing Flight to Freedom and the Making of a Spiritual Hero by Stephan Talty 320 pages, cloth, 3 b&w illustrations. #ESLASN - $ 26.00 On the evening of March 17,1959, as the people of Tibet braced for a violent power grab by Chinese occupiers—one that would forever wipe out any vestige of national sovereignty—the twenty-four-year-old Dalai Lama, Tibet's political and spirirual leader, contemplated the impossible. The task before him was immense: to slip past a cordon of crack Chinese troops ringing his summer palace and, with an escort of 300, journey across the highest terrain in the world and over treacherous Himalayan passes to freedom—one step ahead of pursuing Chinese soldiers. More ... | |