BOOK BRIEFS
amgon Kongtrul (1813–1899), often credited as the founder of , has made an immeasurable impact on modern Tibetan Buddhism, perhaps especially as it’s understood in the West. In (Snow Lion 2019), Alexander Gardner, the director and chief editor of the Treasury of Lives (an online biographical encyclopedia of Tibet, Inner Asia, and the Himalayan regions), offers Western readers the first ever extensive biography of Jamgon Kongtrul in English, along with a new translation of Kongtrul’s , one of his key writings. Gardner notes that as more of Kongtrul’s work has been translated, a more nuanced understanding emerges: whereas many tend to interpret Kongtrul’s rimay as syncratic or anti-institutional, it is truer to
