A Tibetan Lama's Account of 40 Years under Chinese Rule.
This is the remarkable life story of Arjia Rinpoche, who was ordained as a reincarnate lama at the age of two and fled Tibet 46 years later. In his gripping memoir, Rinpoche relates the story of leaving the only home he'd ever known to live in a monastery where he would study to become a spiritual leader. For several years, the young lama was treated with great care and honor as a living Buddha—until one day, Chinese authorities abruptly arrived and systematically rounded up the monks for arrest and torture. His caretakers and teachers gone, Rinpoche was left alone, his home now populated by strangers.
In the years to come, Rinpoche managed to stay safe from physical harm, but was forced into a life of harsh manual labor. After the death of Mao Zedong, he rose to prominence within the Chinese Buddhist bureaucracy with the help of the Panchen Lama. In doing so, he was coerced into publicly supporting China's increasingly aggressive anti–Tibet agenda, including taking part in carefully orchestrated rituals engineered to undermine the authority of the Dalai Lama.
Spiritually and morally depleted, Rinpoche longed to escape the repressive climate and eventually found the opportunity to do so. In February of 1998, he and his attendants disguised themselves as tourists—trading in their saffron robes for jeans, T–shirts, and sunglasses—and managed to board a plane bound for the United States, where Rinpoche now resides.
By turns moving, suspenseful, historical, and spiritual, Surviving the Dragon, provides a rare window into some of the most dramatic moments of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the continuing conflict between Tibet and China.
Arja Rinpoche is one of the most important religious leaders to escape Tibet since the Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959. He lectures across the world as a religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism and an authority on Tibetan art and culture.
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