Freitag, 18. Oktober 2019, 15:15 - 16:45 iCal

A Step Away from Paradise

The True Story of a Tibetan Lama’s Journey to a Land of Immortality

Seminarraum 1 des Instituts für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde
Universitätscampus, Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2.7, 1090 Wien

Vortrag


This lecture tells the true story of what is usually relegated to the realm of fiction: a journey to a land of immortality. It presents the book A Step Away from Paradise (Penguin, 2011; City Lion Press, 2017; Audible audiobook, 2019). Based on over four years of research and extensive interviews, the author weaves together the colorful and often profound stories of the surviving members of this visionary expedition, whom the author sought out across the Himalayas.

Shortly after the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1959, a charismatic and learned visionary Tibetan lama named Tulshuk Lingpa proclaimed a crack in the world. He came to the then independent Kingdom of Sikkim in the Eastern Himalayas in order to ‘open the way’ to a beyul, a hidden land of immortality fabled in Tibetan tradition.

By following the extraordinary story of Lama Tulshuk Lingpa, the presentation unravels the mystery behind this man whom generations had been awaiting, a life that culminated in actually leading over three hundred people on an expedition to a hidden land. Though the place and time of this journey were remote, the aspirations and faith of those who journeyed into the snows looking for a land beyond cares tell us something about the human heart and imagination.

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About the lecturer:

Writer and photographer, Thomas K. Shor was born in Boston, USA, and studied comparative religion and literature in Vermont. With an ear for unusual stories, the fortune to attract them and an eye for detail, he has traveled the planet’s mountainous realms—from the Mayan Highlands of southern Mexico to the mountains of Greece and, more recently to the Indian Himalayas—to collect, illustrate and write stories with a uniquely personal character often having the flavor of fable.

www.thomasshor.com

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Veranstalter

Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde


Kontakt

Judith Starecek
Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde
4277 43502
judith.starecek@univie.ac.at