VENERABLE ARJIA RINPOCHE #1 Organized by TANC and the Oakland Asian Cultural Center

VENERABLE ARJIA RINPOCHE Surviving the Dragon is the story of Arjia Rinpoches growing up as the reincarnated abbot in Kumbum, one of Tibets six great monasteries. Unlike many stories from Tibet, his memories are not those of torture and suffering under the Chinese but of suffering and fame. As a child, he was treated like a living Buddha; as a young man he emptied latrines and spent 18 years laboring on collective farms, but after the death of Mao Tse Tung, he rose to prominence within the Chinese Buddhist bureaucracy. He became Vice-chairman of the Buddhist Association of China and was slated to become its Chairman.

At the time of his escape to the USA, his life was one of ease, which would have continued if he had agreed to become tutor to the boy whom the Communist Chinese had unconscionably named the 11th Panchen Lama. It was a political move against the Dalai Lama and his Buddhist faith. His conscience would not allow him to be disloyal to the values of his mentor the 10th Panchen Lama or His Holiness the Dalai Lama. As a result, he fled Tibet rather than betray his Buddhist religion and his Tibetan and Mongolian heritage. For the first seven years after his escape from Tibet, Arjia Rinpoche lived in Mill Valley, CA where he established the Tibetan Center for Compassion and Wisdom. Today he divides his time between Mill Valley and Bloomington, Indiana, where he is the Director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, which was founded by the Dalai Lamas older brother in 1979.

Surviving the Dragon opens a fascinating window to events from inside Tibetan-Chinese history during the final half of the twentieth century, a conflict that continues today between China and its ethnic minorities. For those interested in modern Asian history, it is a chance to learn the inside story of events that have been largely a mystery to outsiders. For students of Buddhism, it is an opportunity to understand the survival and resurgence of Tibetan Buddhism in its native land. Arjia Rinpoche would like to present the book to the public by giving a talk about his life and events in Tibet that took place during the time period of the book. He is fluent in Tibetan, Mongolian, Mandarin Chinese, and English.

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