The Mirror Of Turquoise Lake: Plays From The Classical Tibetan Buddhist Tradition - Paperback

by Robert Hulton-Baker (Author), Tenzin Chonyi (Author)

The Mirror of Turquoise Lake presents two plays from the classical Tibetan Buddhist dramatic tradition, translated by Tenzin Chönyi and Robert Hulton-Baker. With an introductory essay by Robert Hulton-Baker. Illustrated with line drawings. Nangsa Wöhbum is a woman's story. Nangsa is a girl of great beauty and virtue in ancient Tibet, and her only wish is to help her family and practice the holy Dharma. But her family and a local king have other plans. Soon she is married off and becomes a wife and mother in an aristocratic family. Her courage in the face of the painful circumstances of her life provide a timeless example of perseverance in the spiritual journey. Drimay Kunden is a prince, a man of great sensitivity and compassion. But when Drimay gives away the kingdom's most precious possession, he and his family narrowly escape execution and are cruelly exiled to the wilderness. His story is one of transcendent generosity, forbearance, and the triumph of compassion.

Author Biography

Tenzin Chönyi is the president of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra (KTD) in Woodstock, New York. He was trained by H.H. the Sixteenth Karmapa and has been leading the development of KTD and its affiliate centers in the West since 1974. He has also served as a translator for Tibetan lamas and taught the Tibetan language to Westerners through the Karma Kagyu Institute. Robert Hulton-Baker holds a PhD from New York University where he produced his thesis, Tibetan Buddhist Drama, one of the first critical and aesthetic analyses of this unique genre. He was a long-time faculty member of the English, Speech and World Literature Department and chair of the Department of Performing and Creative Arts at the CUNY College of Staten Island where he taught courses in theater history and Asian literature and philosophy.