The Beggar Lama - by Jinba Tenzin (Hardcover)

About the Book

The Beggar Lama is the story of the Gyalrong Kuzhap, a Tibetan Buddhist polymath and reincarnated lama who has led a remarkable life through the vicissitudes of the twentieth century.

Book Synopsis

The Beggar Lama is the story of the Gyalrong Kuzhap, a Tibetan Buddhist polymath and reincarnated lama who has led a remarkable life through the vicissitudes of the twentieth century. Born in 1930 in Tsanlha, Gyalrong, on the easternmost fringes of the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau, he would go on to become a monk, a Communist official, a professor of Tibetan studies, and a leader in the Tibetan cultural survival movement in China.

Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth and open-ended conversations over more than a decade, Tenzin Jinba presents the Gyalrong Kuzhap's life story. The Beggar Lama chronicles his journeys--from Gyalrong to Lhasa, from steadfast Communist to critic of the Chinese regime, from scholar to activist--painting a compelling portrait of an influential and unconventional figure. In so doing, the book shows how the Gyalrong Kuzhap's tale intertwines with larger social and political developments, providing a wide-ranging history of Tibet, the Sino-Tibetan borderlands, and China over the past century.

The Beggar Lama shares the Gyalrong Kuzhap's insightful and often critical views on Tibetan cultural and religious institutions, the Chinese Communist Party's social and political agendas, Tibetan studies in China, and the prospects for Tibetan cultural rebirth. Above all, it is a story of hope in dark times, as the Gyalrong Kuzhap seeks with his "last breath" to prevent Tibetan culture and memory from vanishing.

Review Quotes

A valuable addition to modern Tibetan history that will appeal to a wide academic readership interested in oral history, biographical writing, and the history of Chinese Communist Party policies on the Sino-Tibetan frontier.-- "Journal of Asian Studies"

The Beggar Lama is an extraordinary work of ethnographic writing that spans biography and memoir, political and cultural history, and critical reflection on the nature of identity and belonging on the Tibetan periphery. In recording the singular life story of a scholar, teacher, and former Communist Party official, the Gyalrong Kuzhap, Tenzin Jinba has also crafted a sensitive and complex narrative of Tibet as it shifts from the 1930s to the post-Mao era.--Andrew Quintman, Wesleyan University

Tenzin Jinba's first-person biography of a reincarnate lama who lived through the pivotal events of twentieth-century Tibet is a gripping story. An assiduously researched and beautifully written combination of history and biography, this book gives an invaluable eyewitness account of decades of transformation in the "convergence zone" of the Sino-Tibetan frontier.--Erik Mueggler, University of Michigan

This account provides an insider's view of a Tibetan recognized as a reincarnate lama who sided with the Communist Party, worked closely with the United Front, and survived long enough to thrive in post-Cultural Revolution Tibet. Tenzin Jinba's critical memoir of Tsanlha Ngawang Tsültrim holds out hope for the future while acknowledging the very real despair and difficulties of a lived experience on the margins of both Tibet and China.--Gray Tuttle, Columbia University

This is an extraordinary oral history of a Tibetan incarnate lama who lived through Tibet's twentieth-century transformation and its incorporation into the People's Republic of China. The astonishing depth of the Gyalrong Kuzhap's memories that Tenzin Jinba has elicited and the sympathy and sophistication of the contextualization he provides make this a memorable read.--Henrietta Harrison, University of Oxford

About the Author

Tenzin Jinba teaches anthropology and sociology at the National University of Singapore. He is the author of In the Land of the Eastern Queendom: The Politics of Gender and Ethnicity on the Sino-Tibetan Border (2013).