Tulkus, Tertons, Turmoil

This religious-political history of East Tibet 1855-1955 is told through the life stories of some of the leading Buddhist spiritual masters of East Tibet (Kham) as well as significant political figures active during this turbulent period in the history of Kham that now forms part of Sichuan Province, China.

It shows how the great non-sectarian spiritual renaissance during the Rimé period of Tibetan history in the 19th and early 20th centuries occurred in a land rent by constant political turmoil and thus serves as an inspiration in contemporary times of geopolitical tension.

It honours the spiritual masters of Tibet's Vajrayana Buddhism, the tulkus (incarnate lamas) and tertons (revealers of treasure teachings) who have kept this unique wisdom knowledge tradition alive, both within contemporary China, and in the rest of the world through the Buddhist masters who came into exile where they attracted many student-practitioner and scholars across the world, both in the West and among the extensive Chinese and Tibetan diaspora.