Gendun Chopel

Lopez, Donald S. Jr

"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...