Gendun Chopel : Tibet's modern visionary / Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lopez, Donald S., Jr., 1952- author.

Contributor:

Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

Dge-Ê1/4dun-chos-Ê1/4phel, A-mdo, 1903-1951.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Scholars.

Lamas.

Amdo (China : Region)--Biography.

Amdo (China : Region).

China--Amdo (Region).

Dge-Ê1/4dun-chos-Ê1/4phel, A-mdo, 1903-1951.

Dge-Ê1/4dun-chos-Ê1/4phel.

Lamas--China--Amdo (Region)--Biography.

Scholars--China--Amdo (Region)--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xi, 277 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

Firest edition.

Place of Publication:

Boulder, Colorado : Shambhala Publications, Inc., [2018]

Summary:

"The most comprehensive work available on the life and writings of Tibet's most famous modern cultural hero. Poet, prolific writer, Buddhist philosopher, adventurer, madman, and saint can all be used to describe Gendun Chopel (1903-1951). The life and writings of this cultural prophet of the Himalayas represent a key turning point in Tibetan religious and cultural history, when twentieth-century modernity came crashing into Tibet as a result of the Great Game and the invasion of Communist China. Gendun Chopel was a recognized reincarnation (tulku), a Gelukpa monk, and a nonsectarian Buddhist practitioner. He eventually became Tibet's first modern artist and writer, largely due to his extensive time abroad and exposure to Western culture in British India. Gendun Chopel was little appreciated in his lifetime, though he was known by the Tibetan elite for his scholarship and progressivist ideas, which eventually landed him in a Lhasa prison. While he did not accrue many followers in his lifetime, his love of the Dharma and extensive contributions to Tibetan Buddhist philsophy count him among the greatest Buddhist masters to have come from Tibet. No contemporary scholar knows Gendun Chopel better than Donald S. Lopez, Jr., who has written six books on the figure so far. Lopez intimately and eloquently carries the reader through the life of Gendun Chopel, setting the stage for his selected writings, which present the range and depth of Chopel's thought"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The Biography

1 Tibet 9

2 India 21

3 Sojourn in Ceylon 49

4 Return to Tibet 67

5 The Buddhism of Gendun Chopel 89

The Writings

6 Reasons for Writing, from Grains of Gold 117

7 The Wonders of India, from Grains of Gold 123

8 A Description of Bodh Gaya, from Guide to the Sacred Sites of India 129

9 The World Is Round, from Melong 135

10 Selected Poetry 139

11 Erotic Instruction, from the Treatise on Passion 159

12 On Islam, from Grains of Gold 165

13 The Monks of Sri Lanka, from Grains of Gold 175

14 Gendun Chopel's India, from Grains of Gold 195

15 Tibet's Glorious Past, from the White Annals 223

16 On the Nature of Reality, from Adornment for Nagarjuna's Thought 227.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781611804065

161180406X

OCLC:

990118944