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From Lion's Jaws: Chögyam Trungpa's Epic Escape To The West
In 1959 a nineteen year-old lama, Chögyam Trungpa, led 300 Tibetan men, women and children on a desperate nine-month escape from pursuing Communist troops. Travelling where people had never been, they trekked through some of the world’s harshest weather and most treacherous mountains. Then, starving and exhausted, they crossed a river under heavy gunfire in flimsy vessels they’d made themselves -- only to face a midwinter climb over the Himalayas.
It is the story of ordinary people and their young leader taking a vast leap into the unknown, to make one of history’s most extraordinary escapes.
* Links to a gallery of images, video footage and satellite imagery enable readers to follow the stunning route and breathe in the spectacular landscape.
* This revised edition adds important details to the story, also a guide to the main figures on the escape for readers unfamiliar with Tibetan names.
It is the story of ordinary people and their young leader taking a vast leap into the unknown, to make one of history’s most extraordinary escapes.
* Links to a gallery of images, video footage and satellite imagery enable readers to follow the stunning route and breathe in the spectacular landscape.
* This revised edition adds important details to the story, also a guide to the main figures on the escape for readers unfamiliar with Tibetan names.
337 pages, Paperback
Published March 31, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 4, 2026
This "epic escape" follows Trungpa's lengthy and convoluted journey out of Tibet and into India (and beyond). Trungpa's early memoir Born in Tibet covers the same journey but at that time certain details were omitted or disguised, because they concerned people still in Tibet and subject to reprisals from the Chinese government.
This journey has been recreated with the help of modern mapping technology, and the author has a website with more material.
The book itself describes an almost unbelievable journey, with horrendous hardships, and personally I believe some of the trauma of this journey affected Trungpa for the rest of his life. That said, Trungpa did an amazing amount of work bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the Western world — and that work is still unfolding. One of his first teaching books, designed for the western ego-mindset, was Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, which spoke to me when I picked it up many decades ago.
This journey has been recreated with the help of modern mapping technology, and the author has a website with more material.
The book itself describes an almost unbelievable journey, with horrendous hardships, and personally I believe some of the trauma of this journey affected Trungpa for the rest of his life. That said, Trungpa did an amazing amount of work bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the Western world — and that work is still unfolding. One of his first teaching books, designed for the western ego-mindset, was Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, which spoke to me when I picked it up many decades ago.
January 1, 2017
A gripping excellently researched tale - a real eye-opener as to what was involved in Chogyal Trungpa Rinpoche's escape from Tibet
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews