Pozvánka na přednášku Thomase K. Shora
Srdečně zveme na přednášku Thomase K. Shora o charizmatickém odkryvateli "skrytého místa" (sbas yul) v Sikkimu podle stejnojmenné knihy vydané v roce 2011 A Step away from Paradise. Přednáška proběne dne 12. 1. 2016 v 10.00, místnost 427 (Celetná 20).
A Step away from Paradise:
The True Story of a Journey to a Land of Immortality
This slide presentation lecture (in power point) A Step away from Paradise tells the true story of what is usually relegated to the realm of fiction: a journey to a land of immortality.
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—sandwiched between Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, and Indian Bengal—in order to ‘open the way’ to a hidden land of immortality fabled in Tibetan tradition.
This lecture, based on the book of the same name (Penguin, 2011), is based on over four years of research and extensive interviews. It weaves together the colorful and often profound stories of the surviving members of this visionary expedition, whom the author sought out across the Himalayas. 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.
The lecture is informed with historical and cultural material gleaned from in-depth research at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, with conversations with some of the leading scholars of Tibetan Buddhism as well as with practicing Tibetan lamas. The numerous photographic portraits of the people in the story together with photographs of the places described act as constant reminders that though the story stretches the boundaries between fact and fiction, the events depicted are all true. And 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.
Thomas K. Shor
Writer and Photographer Thomas K. Shor was born in Boston and studied comparative religion and literature in Vermont. He has spent most of his life in the planet’s mountainous realms photographing, and collecting and writing the stories of those who live there. His first book, Windblown Clouds, which was published in both the USA and India, tells the story of his first journey to India as a young man when he traveled there with a seventy-year-old ex-Harvard professor turned holy man. He is also the author of The Master Director: A Journey Through Politics, Doubt and Devotion with a Himalayan Master (HarperCollins, 2014).
Contact: thomas.shor@yahoo.com
Webpage: www.ThomasShor.com