The Beggar Lama

Andrew Quintman, Wesleyan University:
The Beggar Lama is an extraordinary work of ethnographic writing that spans biography and memoir, political and cultural history, and critical reflection on the nature of identity and belonging on the Tibetan periphery. In recording the singular life story of a scholar, teacher, and former Communist Party official, the Gyalrong Kuzhap, Tenzin Jinba has also crafted a sensitive and complex narrative of Tibet as it shifts from the 1930s to the post-Mao era.

Erik Mueggler, University of Michigan:
Tenzin Jinba’s first-person biography of a reincarnate lama who lived through the pivotal events of twentieth-century Tibet is a gripping story. An assiduously researched and beautifully written combination of history and biography, this book gives an invaluable eyewitness account of decades of transformation in the "convergence zone" of the Sino-Tibetan frontier.

Henrietta Harrison, University of Oxford:
This is an extraordinary oral history of a Tibetan incarnate lama who lived through Tibet’s twentieth-century transformation and its incorporation into the People’s Republic of China. The astonishing depth of the Gyalrong Kuzhap’s memories that Tenzin Jinba has elicited and the sympathy and sophistication of the contextualization he provides make this a memorable read.