The Dance of 17 Lives: The Incredible True Story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa

By Mick Brown

In January 2000, two Ambassador taxis twisted their way up the narrow road leading towards Dharamsala in the Himalayan foothills of northern India - the home-in-exile of the Dalai Lama. In one taxi was a fourteen-year-old boy, the 17th Karmapa, one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism.

The boy's arrival in Dharamsala was the culmination of an extraordinary escape which 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.

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Nov 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9781408819487

Mick Brown

Mick Brown writes regularly for 'The Daily Telegraph'. His books include 'The Spiritual Tourist: A Personal Odyssey Through the Outer Reaches of Belief'; 'The Dance of 17 Lives: The Incredible True Story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa'; and 'Tearing Down The Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector'.