Trungpa Chögyam - Born in Tibet

ABOUT THE BOOK

Chgyam Trungpa was identified at the age of only thirteen months as a major tulku, or reincarnation of an enlightened teacher. As the eleventh in the teaching lineage known as the Trungpa tulkus, he underwent a period of intensive training in mediation, philosophy, and fine arts, receiving full ordination as a monk in 1958 at the age of eighteen. The following year, the Chinese Communists invaded Tibet, and the young Trungpa spent many harrowing months trekking over the Himalayas, narrowly escaping capture.

Trungpas account of his experiences as a young monk, his duties as the abbot and spiritual head of a great monastery, and his moving relationships with his teachers offers a rare and intimate glimpse into the life of a Tibetan lama. The memoir concludes with his daring escape from Tibet to India. In an epilogue, he describes his emigration to the West, where he encountered many people eager to learn about the ancient wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism.

CHGYAM TRUNGPAmeditation master, teacher, and artistwas the founder of Naropa University and is the author of numerous books on Buddhism and the path of meditation, including Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, The Myth of Freedom, and Great Eastern Sun.

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Center: Marpa the Translator, father of the Kagy school.

Clockwise from top: Vajradhara Buddha with two Indian gurus, Gampopa, Mahakala (the Protector), Karmapa, Vajra Yogini (female divinity), and Milarepa.

DRAWN BY SHERAB PALDEN BERU.

BORN IN TIBET

by

CHGYAM TRUNGPA

The eleventh TRUNGPA TULKU

as told to

ESM CRAMER ROBERTS

With Forewords by

THE SAKYONG MIPHAM RINPOCHE

and

MARCO PALLIS

Fourth Edition

SHAMBHALA

Boston & London

2010

To my Mother and motherland

Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.shambhala.com

1966 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd.

Epilogue 1977 by Chgyam Trungpa

Foreword to the 1995 Edition 1995 by Diana Mukpo

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The Library of Congress catalogues the 1985 edition of this book as follows:

Trungpa, Chgyam, 1939

Born in Tibet.

Reprint. Originally published: Boulder, Colo.: Shambhala, 1977, c1966.

Includes index.

1. Trungpa, Chogyam, 1939. 2. LamasChinaTibetBiography. I. Roberts, Esm Cramer. II. Title.

BQ990.R867A33 1985 294.3 923 0924 [B] 85-8174

eISBN 978-0-8348-2130-9

ISBN 0-87773-333-3

ISBN 0-394-74219-2

ISBN 1-57062-116-0

ISBN 1-57062-714-2

CONTENTS

Foreword to the 1995 Edition

W HEN I THINK back upon my fathers life, it amazes me how much he accomplished in such a short time. He was only forty-eight years old when he passed away, but within that time, the experiences he had and the people he encountered were as varied and rich as if he had lived for hundreds of years.

Often people would ask him how he was able to adapt to so many diverse cultures, and how he was able to deal with the tremendous hardships of his life. Always his answer would be that it was due to the rigorous traditional training and education that he received in Tibet while he was young. It might appear to the reader that the Tibet of Chgyam Trungpas youth was medieval; it seems so distant from todays modern world, and so harsh. Ironically, however, it was that very training, with its simplicity and realness, that gave him the foundation that enabled him to relate with this modern world.

My father had two distinct roles in his life, corresponding with the periods of his life spent in the East and the West. During the first part of his life, since he was recognized as the incarnation of a famous teacher, people had high expectations of him. Many of the lamas and monks at the monastery were quite concerned that he be able to fit into his traditional role and continue the work of his predecessor. He very much had to fulfill the ambitions of the monastic community, as well as those of the laypeople of his religion.

Once he left Tibet, his role was quite differentalmost totally the opposite. In the West, very few people knew much about Buddhism as a whole, and they knew even less about the role of a lama, a spiritual teacher. People had little basis for any kind of expectations. In many ways, this was incredibly liberating for Chgyam Trungpa, and in fact it enabled him to become one of the most prominent Buddhist teachers of his time. His unique gift was that he was able to synthesize the ancient wisdom of Buddhism and transmit it to the West in a clear and concise way that was both meaningful and refreshingso much so that a new generation of Western practitioners was born.

Born in Tibet is a unique book, one that I personally have always loved to read. It is not just a historical document, a book about Tibetan culture, but it reveals many subtleties of what that life was actually like. It shows the spiritual development of teacher and disciple, and it illustrates the humanness that everyone possesses, regardless of culture, and the politics that come about from that.

Even though my father was not particularly a nostalgic person, he had tremendous pride in his Tibetan heritage, which he transmitted to me in various ways. Occasionally in the middle of the night, we would prepare bandit soup together. This was one of his favorite Tibetan delicacies, which was simply raw meat with hot water poured over it.

Knowing the tremendous hardships and challenges that confronted Chgyam Trungpa, and how he was able to overcome them through his courage, humor, and his faith in the spiritual disciplines of Tibet, I have always found this book inspiring. I hope that you too may be inspired by his example, and that this book will continue to benefit numberless beings.

THE SAKYONG MIPHAM RINPOCHE

November 25, 1994

Karm Chling

Foreword to the 1977 Edition

S TORIES OF ESCAPE have always enlisted the sympathy of normal human beings; no generous heart but will beat faster as the fugitives from civil or religious persecution approach the critical moment that will, for them, spell captivity or death, or else the freedom they are seeking. The present age has been more than usually prodigal in such happenings, if only for the reason that in this twentieth century of ours, for all the talk about human rights, the area of oppression, whether as a result of foreign domination or native tyranny, has extended beyond all that has ever been recorded in the past. One of the side effects of modern technology has been to place in the hands of those who control the machinery of government a range of coercive apparatus undreamed of by any ancient despotism. It is not only such obvious means of intimidation as machine guns or concentration camps that count; such a petty product of the printing press as an identity card, by making it easy for the authorities to keep constant watch on everybodys movements, represents in the long run a still more effective curb on liberty. In Tibet, for instance, the introduction of such a system by the Chinese Communists, following the abortive rising of 1959, and its application to food rationing has been one of the principal means of keeping the whole population in subjection and compelling them to do the work decreed by their foreign overlords. Formerly Tibet was a country where, though simple living was the rule, serious shortage of necessities had been unknown: Thus, one of the most contented portions of the world has been reduced to misery, with many of its people, like the author of the present book, choosing exile rather than remain in their own homes under conditions where no man, and especially no young person, is any longer allowed to call his mind his own.