Surviving the Dragon: A Tibetan Lama's Life Under Chinese Rule

UC Berkeley's Center for Chinese Studies presents a talk by Arjia Rinpoche on his book, which provides a rare window into a tumultuous period of Chinese history and offers readers an uncommon glimpse inside a Buddhist monastery in Tibet.

On a peaceful summer day in 1952, ten monks on horseback arrived at a traditional nomad tent in northeastern Tibet where they offered the parents of a precocious toddler their white handloomed scarves and congratulations for having given birth to a holy child – and future spiritual leader. Surviving the Dragon is the remarkable life story of Arjia Rinpoche, who was ordained as a reincarnate lama at the age of two and fled Tibet 46 years later. In his gripping memoir, Rinpoche relates the story of having been abandoned in his monastery as a young boy after witnessing the torture and arrest of his monastery family. In the years to come, Rinpoche survived under harsh Chinese rule, as he was forced into hard labor and endured continual public humiliation as part of Mao's Communist "reeducation." By turns moving, suspenseful, historical, and spiritual, Rinpoche's unique experiences provide a rare window into a tumultuous period of Chinese history and offer readers an uncommon glimpse inside a Buddhist monastery in Tibet.

Arjia Rinpoche was the Abbot of Kumbum Monastery in Amdo, one of the six great centers of Buddhism in Tibet. Born to Mongolian nomads in Eastern Tibet, he is the reincarnation of the father of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelupa (Yellow Hat) Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Rinpoche (Gegeen in Mongolian) is one of the most important religious leaders to leave Tibet since the Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959. He is fluent in Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian, and since 1998, when he moved to California, he has become adept at English as well. In the year 2000, the Rinpoche established The Tibetan Center for Compassion and Wisdom (TCCW) in Mill Valley and Oakland, California to preserve and celebrate Tibetan language, arts, and to advance understanding of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. Rinpoche is the only Tibetan high lama of Mongolian descent. Since a very early age, he has trained with lineage teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the late Panchen Lama, from whom he received many initiations and empowerments in sutric and tantric traditions.