His Accounts

SURVIVING THE DRAGON:
A Tibetan Lama's Account of 40 Years of Chinese Rule

by Arjia Rinpoche
(Rodale – 272 pages with original photographs) – Introduction by the Dalai Lama

Surviving the Dragon is the story of Arjia Rinpoche’s growing up as the reincarnated abbot in Kumbum, one of Tibet’s major monasteries. As a child, he was treated like a living Buddha; as a young man he emptied latrines, but after the death of Mao Tse Tung, he rose to prominence within the Chinese Buddhist bureaucracy.

When he was slated to become the tutor of the Chinese selected Panchen Lama, he fled Tibet rather than betray his Buddhist religion and his Tibetan and Mongolian heritage. Rinpoche’s unique experience provides a rare vantage on this tumultuous period of Tibetan and Chinese history as well as a glimpse of life inside a Buddhist monastery in Tibet.

Surviving the Dragon opens a window to events from inside Tibetan-Chinese history during the final half of the twentieth century, a conflict that continues today. Rinpoche published his memoirs in the Mongolian language in 2009. Work is underway to translate Surviving the Dragon into Tibetan and Chinese.

Цагийг бэлгэдэгч наран чөлөө

by Arjia Rinpoche

His true account about the joys and fears of life in Tibet: how he overcame hunger, served under the last Banchin Bogd through all levels of religion, and how he managed to deal with political violence for the benefit of the Tibetan people under the Chinese leadership.

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