{"product_id":"the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead-a-biography-9780691134352","title":"The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow an eccentric spiritualist from Trenton, New Jersey, helped create the most famous text of Tibetan Buddhism\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Tibetan Book of the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e is the most famous Buddhist text in the West, having sold more than a million copies since it was first published in English in 1927. Carl Jung wrote a commentary on it, Timothy Leary redesigned it as a guidebook for an acid trip, and the Beatles quoted Leary's version in their song \"Tomorrow Never Knows.\" More recently, the book has been adopted by the hospice movement, enshrined by Penguin Classics, and made into an audiobook read by Richard Gere. Yet, as acclaimed writer and scholar of Buddhism Donald Lopez writes, \"\u003ci\u003eThe Tibetan Book of the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e is not really Tibetan, it is not really a book, and it is not really about death.\" In this compelling introduction and short history, Lopez tells the strange story of how a relatively obscure and malleable collection of Buddhist texts of uncertain origin came to be so revered--and so misunderstood--in the West. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe central character in this story is Walter Evans-Wentz (1878-1965), an eccentric scholar and spiritual seeker from Trenton, New Jersey, who, despite not knowing the Tibetan language and never visiting the country, crafted and named \u003ci\u003eThe Tibetan Book of the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e. In fact, Lopez argues, Evans-Wentz's book is much more American than Tibetan, owing a greater debt to Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky than to the lamas of the Land of Snows. Indeed, Lopez suggests that the book's perennial appeal stems not only from its origins in magical and mysterious Tibet, but also from the way Evans-Wentz translated the text into the language of a very American spirituality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDonald S. Lopez, Jr.\u003c\/b\u003e, is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. His many books include \u003ci\u003eThe Story of Buddhism\u003c\/i\u003e (HarperOne) and \u003ci\u003ePrisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West\u003c\/i\u003e. He has also edited a number of books by the Dalai Lama.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50327162683666,"sku":"9780691134352","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8b3ad022-42dc-470b-9e6d-bf38cdf26a6c.jpg?v=1727710731","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead-a-biography-9780691134352","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}