From Lion's Jaws: Chogyam Trungpa's Epic Escape To The West

Grant MacLean's well-researched, well-written book is gripping from start to finish. It gives us an intimate and rich glimpse of old Tibet as the political tensions were building during the "Cultural Revolution," and we then accompany Chogyam Trungpa and his party on their harrying escape over the Himalayas into India. This work is an exciting historical contribution, with previously unknown details provided by Mr. MacLean's careful (and amazing) interviews with people who were actually in the escape party, and with others who knew Trungpa in India and England. Congratulations to the author!

In this remarkable story, using little more than intuition, spiritual insight, and the occasional mirror divination, Chögyam Trungpa and company traverse some of the most hostile and inhospitable terrain on the planet. Not to mention the Chinese army, starvation, and frostbite. Against insurmountable odds, these daring Tibetans defy logic and the elements to escape the annihilation of their culture and bring the Dharma to the west. Good stuff!

This book chronicles the unbelievable hardships that the Tibetan people have in fleeing from their land. I take my hat off to them - those that made it and those that didn't - for their courage and determination against the odds. It was an eye opening and sometimes gut wrenching read. I truly hope they all find the peace they are looking for.

Amazing story. And the description of the Pema Ko valley was stunning!

It is always excellent this one was even better.

Grant MacLean’s From Lion’s Jaws: Chogyam Trungpa’s Epic Escape to the West stands alone as the best book ever written in two totally different categories. First of all, the book is a great spiritual epic. For those of us that were direct students of the Tibetan Buddhist master, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche—and for the thousands of other Westerners that have been attracted to his teachings—the story offers a mind-boggling look at the qualities that we repeatedly witnessed in Trungpa Rinpoche during the seventeen years he was with us: courage, humor, confidence, humbleness, compassion, unwavering bravery and warriorship. The story of the escape speaks volumes about the character of this remarkable person and teacher. Everything that he taught us about how to be genuine is embodied in the superbly told story itself. Imagine—three hundred men, women (many bearing babes in arms) and children, embark on a nine months journey in an attempt to escape the Chinese Communist takeover of their country. The entourage is led by a just-turned-19-year-old lama, Chogyam Trungpa, already renowned as one of the great teachers in Tibet. They are hoping that he can lead them to freedom. They are forced to travel through a series of extraordinarily high mountain ranges where no human being has ever trod before. They must travel only in the dead of night to avoid being detected from above by the Communist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) pilots that are searching for their young leader from the skies. They know that, if they are spotted and caught, the young Trungpa Rinpoche will share in the fate of the scores of Buddhist teachers that have been mercilessly herded off and executed by the PLA. [At one monastery, the abbot explained to the Chinese that, since the monks followed a path of non-violence, there were no guns or other weapons to be found. The Communist officer responded to this gesture by shooting the abbot through the head.] Although the Tibetan travelers are, of course, concerned about their own personal safety and the safety of their families, they are even more determined to assist in the young Trungpa Rinpoche’s escape to India and then possibly to the West, so that he can preserve the precious teachings on the discipline of meditation that he has been trained in from birth. He, on the other hand, seems only concerned about them In addition to being a spiritual classic, From Lion’s Jaws, surpasses even the stories of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic escape and the painful race to the South Pole between Roald Admundsen, a modest Norwegian, and the arrogant Robert Scott, an Englishman. I happen to be an avid reader of such stories, but none of those men had to conquer the odds faced by Trungpa Rinpoche and his group. The professional explorers were not accompanied by hundreds of men, women, and children—all starving and utterly exhausted. The Tibetans had no maps, nor even a compass, to guide their way. The snow was so deep in certain regions that the men had to lie in the snow and press it down so that the others could proceed across, and then navigate a series of harrowing descents from mountain peaks into turbulent rivers below, sometimes using only rope ladders. And, at the head of the group, a 19-year-old boy, having to make each momentous decision by himself, stopping only for short meditation retreats until his intuition helped him to see a clear way to proceed. As it turns out, Trungpa Rinpoche told us only the barest details about the journey in his early (1969) book, Born in Tibet. Through Mr. MacLean we discover that Rinpoche was prevented from providing those details due to the very real threat that the Chinese Communists would use such information to retaliate against the villagers that had reported any sightings of PLA troops and helped the escapees with food and other provisions along the way. Most remarkably, in Trungpa Rinpoche’s seventeen years in North America, he never mentioned the inconceivable difficulty of the journey or his own bravery in leading the escape. Not even once. No bragging; no piling up of credentials. He simply concentrated on presenting the teachings he had inherited to his thousands of students, most notably in such books as Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism and Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior. This book means much to me personally due to my own journey with Trungpa Rinpoche. But all readers will find it to be an inspiration, particularly in these times when it may seem difficult to discover examples of the very best that human beings can be. A great book and a perfect gift for the people in your life.

As I read From Lion's Jaws I kept thinking how I'd like to discuss it and how much my book club would enjoy it. I'm recommending it for my book club, even though most of us know very little about Buddhism. The author compares Chogyam Trungpa's escape from Tibet to Shackleton's Antarctic trek. It sounds much harder than that, and reminded me of Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand’s book about Louie Zamperini’s experiences as a Japanese POW during World War II, in how astounding it is that some people can experience such physically, emotionally and mentally excruciating challenges and manage to survive in all those ways. However, as gripping as it is, this story was more uplifting throughout than Unbroken. I also enjoyed the relevant history of China and Tibet and how author Grant MacLean connects it to this story. It was especially fascinating to learn about a way of life now gone in the description of how Trungpa was located as a baby and determined to be the reincarnation of the previous Trungpa. His education, relationships, and the politics and society of the monastery were all as interesting to me as his harrowing nine month-long escape over some of the world's highest mountains, partly in winter, leading about 300 people ranging from infants to the elderly. It will be interesting for our group to explore some of the issues and difficulties of leadership. These include, among others, dealing with the monastic bureaucracy to independent and even some rebellious peasants whom the nineteen year-old Trungpa did not want to lead but ultimately accepted. Different as the setting is, many issues resonate. Trungpa had hoped to escape with only a few others, which would have been so much easier and quicker, but he accepted all who found him and begged to come. His only requirement was that they agree not to kill people or animals, even if starving, and they did starve. It's amazing what starving, exhausted, freezing people can accomplish. We should find it interesting to discuss the many decisions Trungpa had to make, some of which seem very difficult to understand from our cultural perspective. Tibetan culture and the nature of supernatural involvement in everyday life will certainly provoke discussion. There are a number of characters whose responses to the situations and events will spark discussion. Perhaps most of all, we'll probably want to consider how we'd have responded in those extraordinary situations. The resources for the book at [...] are fascinating in themselves. Don’t miss the video [...] The photographs and video are beautiful.

Real-life drama full of very interesting information. The story of how, possibly the most influential Buddhist teacher of our times, brought the wisdom and compassion of the meditative tradition out of Tibet. It's got conflict, scandal, warfare, oppression, perseverance and kindness. Well written (easy to read), well researched and highly informative. If you are interested in reading about adventure, Buddhism, reaching goals or being tough, you will probably enjoy this book. If you are interested in how Buddhism came to the West and particularly if you have an interest in Chogyam Trungpa you will likely find this book fascinating.

Suspense and astonishing writing, only based on one book by Chögyam Trungpa and interviews from different Tibetans who took part on this trip, flying from their country and the Chinese troops in 1959, heading to India through the Bramaputra River and the Himalayas.

A story of high adventure told with great sensitivity. The story of the escape from Tibet of a 19-year old Tibetan lama, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who became a famous teacher in the West, through the Himalayas in winter in the teeth of the Chinese army with an unwieldy 300 followers. The author has been to Tibet, spoken to some who escaped with Trungpa Rinpoche and has created a fascinating website with backup material.