The Dance of 17 Lives

"In January 2000, an Ambassador taxi twisted its way up the narrow road leading towards Dharamsala in the Himalayan foothills of northern India - the home-in-exile of the Dalai Lama. Inside was a fourteen-year-old boy, the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism. His arrival was the culmination of an extraordinary escape that had brought him 900 miles across the Himalayas, in conditions of high danger, from the monastery in Tibet where he had lived since he was seven years old." "The Karmapas, the great wisdom teachers and miracle workers of Tibetan Buddhism, are the oldest line of identifiable reincarnates in Tibet, older even than the Dalai Lamas. When the 17th suddenly appeared in Dharamsala, everyone was taken by surprise - the global media, the Chinese government, his devotees around the world." "Fascinated by this charismatic young figure, Mick Brown travelled to Dharamsala to meet him, and found himself drawn into the labyrinthine - not to say surreal - web of intrigue surrounding the 17th Karmapa's recognition and young life. The Karmapas traditionally leave a letter before they die, predicting exactly where their next incarnation will be