Karmapa

Karmapa - Lea Terhune

At the age of fourteen, Orgyen Trinley Dorje had already lived a life marked by devotion, intrigue and transformation. Karmapa: The Politics of Reincarnation tells his remarkable story.

For many Westerners, Tibet is a land of powerful spiritual teachings, breathtaking mountain landscapes and geopolitical intrigue. Its resistance to Chinese rule and the growing presence of Tibetan Buddhism in the West have become part of Western consciousness. In January 2000, interest reached a peak when the fourteen-year-old Orgyen Trinley Dorje, recognised as the Seventeenth Karmapa and often described as one of the most important figures in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, made a dramatic escape from Tibet to India, the land of the Buddha's birth, so that he could study with the masters of his lineage and be a leader to his people.

In this book Karmapa, award-winning journalist Lea Terhune draws on wide-ranging research and interviews with key figures, including the Karmapa himself. She unravels the story of the disputed recognition of the Seventeenth Karmapa, and traces the roots of the Kagyu tradition and the history of the previous Karmapas. The Karmapa lineage, going back to the twelfth century, is the oldest line of consciously reincarnating lamas in Tibetan Buddhism, even older than that of the Dalai Lamas.

A fascinating book for anyone interested in Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, the Karma Kagyu tradition, reincarnation and the meeting point of religion and politics.