The Magical Play of Illusion: The Autobiography of Trijang Rinpoche, Hardcover

The Dalai Lama's teacher's autobiography offers glimpses into the young Dalai Lama's spiritual upbringing and his escape from Tibet.

As the mentor to the young Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Trijang Rinpoch became one of his most trusted confidants. Rinpoch 's status gave him a front-row seat to many of the momentous historical events that befell Tibet. He observes the workings of Tibetan high society and politics with an unvarnished frankness, including inside details of encounters with Mao Zedong, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Pope Paul VI.

Most widely known as a yogi with profound, lifelong religious training, Trijang Rinpoch was also a statesman, a preserver of culture, a poet, writer, and artist. His autobiography is a beautifully written account of Tibetan life in the twentieth century, including intimate details about the upbringing of the Dalai Lama.

Sharpa Tulku Tenzin Trinley was born in Lhasa, Tibet, into the Rampa family, whose members served in Tibet's Ganden Phodrang government until 1959. He left Tibet following the Chinese occupation, and in India he spent time at the monastic settlement in Buxa and at Freda Bedi's Young Lamas Home School before being sent to the United States in 1962 for Western education along with Geshé Lhundub Sopa and two other tulkus. In 1966, he returned to Dharamsala, where he served on the Tibetan Council for Religious Affairs. Subsequently he joined the newly established Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, where he translated for Dharma classes and worked on many translations of Buddhist texts, including the Yamantaka Cycle Classics published by Tibet House, New Delhi, in 1990. He has translated orally for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kyabjé Ling Rinpoché, Kyabjé Trijang Rinpoché, Assistant Tutor Serkong Rinpoché, the Ninety-Eighth Ganden Throneholder Jampal Shenphen, Lati Rinpoché, and many other lamas and geshés. He moved to the United States in 1976 and currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin, with his family.