The Epic of Gesar of Ling
Foreword by H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Translated by Robin Kornman
Foreword by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Translated by Lama Chonam
Foreword by Alak Zenkar Rinpoche
Translated by Sangye Khandro
By Jamgon Mipham
$120.00
Gesar's Magical Birth, Early Years, and Coronation as King
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Shambhala Publications03/22/2015Pages: 680Size: 7 x 10.25ISBN: 9781611800951DetailsWe also invite you to visit our Gesar page for a host of resources.
The epic of Gesar has been the national treasure of Tibet for almost a thousand years. An open canon of tales about a superhuman warrior-king, the epic is still a living oral tradition, included on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This book is a translation of the beginning portion of this enormous corpus, covering all the events from Gesar’s divine conception to his human birth and mischievous childhood to his coronation as king of Ling.
Born in the pure lands the son of two wisdom deities, Gesar takes rebirth in the human realm in order to defeat the demon kings who had taken over the empires of Asia and to thus liberate the people from suffering. His jealous uncle Trothung proves to be the first major threat to this goal, but Gesar outwits him every time using magic. In the last chapters of the book, he and Trothung’s son face off in a high-tension horse race to decide who will win the throne of Ling and the hand of the coveted Princess Drugmo in marriage.
Gesar’s story is popularly read as an allegory, with Gesar representing the ideal of spiritual warriorship—that is, fearlessness in the face of obstacles on the path to enlightenment. Just as Gesar rides his flying steed, we too can ride the energy of our inherent dignity, confidence, and strength, subduing inner demons and claiming victory.Extras
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Contributions by H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and Dudjom Sangye Pema Shepa$39.95Paperback
Author BioHis Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is considered the foremost Buddhist leader of our time. The exiled spiritual head of the Tibetan people, he is a Nobel Peace Laureate, a Congressional Gold Medal recipient, and a remarkable teacher and scholar who has authored over one hundred books.
Robin Kornman (1947–2007) is best known for his work as a Tibetan Buddhist scholar, as well as a founding member of the Nalanda Translation Committee. Up until his death, he spent many years working on this translation of the epic of Gesar. A longtime student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, he earned his PhD from Princeton University and was a professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.Lama Chönam Chöying Namgyal was born in the Golog area of eastern Tibet in 1964. His root teacher, Khenpo Munsel, was a direct disciple of Khenpo Ngagchung and was himself one of the great authentic Dzogchen masters of the twentieth century. Lama Chönam escaped Tibet in 1992 and later came to the United States, where he resides today. Over the past sixteen years, Lama Chönam has been teaching Tibetan language and the Buddhadharma. He is one of the founders of the Light of Berotsana Translation Group.Sangye Khandro is an American woman who studied Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan language with Tibetan masters in India and Nepal. She has studied and translated many important Tibetan Buddhist texts. She is a cofounder of Light of Berotsana, a nonprofit organization for translators of Tibetan texts.Jamgon Mipham (1846–1912), one of the great luminaries of Tibetan Buddhism in modern times, has had a dominant and vitalizing influence on the Nyingma School and beyond. He was an important member of the Rimé, or nonsectarian movement, which did much to strengthen and preserve the entire tradition. A scholar of outstanding brilliance and versatility, his translated works are eagerly anticipated by English-language readers.Praise"The Gesar story is one of the Tibetan people's most popular epics, its stories being enacted and sung at festivals and on important ceremonial occasions. By making the epic of Gesar available in English, the translators are offering the modern reader a chance to experience the particular character of this Tibetan tradition that has brought hope and fortitude to many generations across the Tibetan-speaking world." —from the foreword by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
"The timing [of this book] could not be better. As our modern world experiences a loss of heart and humanity, and climactic changes and disasters occur, we need the compassionate, wise, and potent energy of Gesar more than ever." —from the foreword by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
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