Secrets of the Twelve Emei Forms – part 1

  Introduction This is part of a series of translations taken from Zhou Qianchuan’s explanation of what we know in our school as the Twelve Emei Daoyin. Dr Shen held these exercises to be the best traditional exercise system developed in China, and I have been luckily enough to learn from and translate for Shen […]

A Biography Of Gongga Huofo Part 3

Cover of Book Showing Gongga Huofo

  Introduction A rather short section here which brings to a close the first chapter of the biography. One friend commented that reading in this way is a bit like the serialised stories that used to appear in newspapers, and that theme is continued in the Chinese text itself where at the end of the […]

A Biography of Gongga Huofo Part 2

Cover of Book Showing Gongga Huofo

  Introduction Since my previous translation got such a warm reception I thought I would push on and get some more added before too much time had passed. For those unfamiliar with the importance of Gongga Rinpoche in my life and work I will put a little of the information here. My primary teacher of […]

A Biography of Gongga Huofo Part 1

Cover of Book Showing Gongga Huofo

Lama Gongga Hutukutu (Lama Gangkar Rinpoche) was born in the nineteenth year of the Qing Guanxu reign (1893), the water-snake year according to the Tibetan calendar, on the fifteenth day of the ninth lunar month (甲午?) (24th October?). He was born in Geleidi Village 格勒底村, Pengbuxi Township 朋布西乡, Kangding County 康定县 in the modern-day Sichuan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Ganzi (Garzê) 四川甘孜藏族自治州, into a half farming and half herding middle-class family.