The Beggar Lama is an extraordinary first-person biography of Tsanlha Ngawang Tsültrim, a Tibetan incarnate lama who played a central role in a series of pivotal events in eastern Tibet during the twentieth century. In meticulously researching and writing this innovative book, anthropologist Tenzin Jinba has taken the bold step of blurring the lines between ethnographic memoir, autobiography, and first-person biography. In doing so, he has painted a detailed portrait of the significant sociopolitical changes that have taken place over the past hundred years in the Gyalrong region in Sichuan Province, which is where both he and Tsanlha Ngawang Tsültrim were born and raised.
Tenzin Jinba first became interested in recording Tsanlha Ngawang Tsültrim's life story while assisting Tsanlha Ngawang Tsültrim on his Tibetan-language manuscript series on Gyalrong history.1 During their many years of working together, Tenzin Jinba and Tsanlha Ngawang Tsültrim discussed Tsanlha Ngawang Tsültrim's life experiences, memories,...
