The Dalai Lama calls himself "a simple Buddhist monk," but that itself is not so simple. Through conversation, stories, sound, and music, we explore the religious and spiritual world of Tibetan Buddhism.
Guests
Robert Thurman, of Columbia University, is the pre-eminent western interpreter of Tibetan Buddhism and co-founder (with Richard Gere) of the Tibet House, in New York. In 1964, he was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk by the Dalai Lama.
Ken Storm, an explorer who followed a century of western explorers drawn to Tibet's forbidding, fantastic geography and discovered an elaborate sacred landscape hidden within.
Thupten Dadak, a musician and former Gyuto monk, demonstrates, and tells stories about, the ritual music of Tibet.
Siddiq Wahid, Muslim author, scholar, and businessman, spent part of his childhood in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, with a uniquely intimate perspective on the Dalai Lama and the religious sensibilities of his people
Practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism who live in the United States, both Tibetan and American, speaking about their personal experiences of this religion:
• Penny Paster of Wisconsin
• Lama Palden Drolma (born Caroline Alioto) of San Francisco
• Tashi Gangzey of Minnesota
Related Links
• View Tibet, Spirits in Motion: Moments in Time, an online slideshow of work from five Minnesota photographers, chronicling their interactions with Tibetans at home and around the world.
• Check out Minnesota Public Radio's news coverage of the Dalai Lama's visit to the Twin Cities in May 2001.
Recommended Reading
If you want to learn more about the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism, this is a reading list with a variety of emphases and perspectives. Many of these books also have extensive bibliographies of their own for those who want to go further.
• The Search for the Panchen Lama, by Isabel Hilton (Viking, 1999)
• The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition, by James William Coleman (Oxford University Press, 2001)
• Virtual Tibet, by Orville Schell (Metropolitan Books, 2000)
• Seven Years in Tibet, by Heinrich Harrer (Hart-Davis, 1953)
Books by the Dalai Lama
• My Land and My People (McGraw-Hill, 1962)
• Freedom in Exile (HarperCollins, 1990)
• The World of Tibetan Buddhism (Wisdom Publications, 1995)
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