This new format offers a profound way to experience this classic Tibetan text. The set contains a complete paperback edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which includes an introduction by Francesca Fremantle, as well as helpful commentary by Ch�gyam Trungpa. The two audio CDs contain a reading of the text by actor Richard Gere, as well as a short commentary.

Trungpa was born in Eastern Tibet and recognized as an incarnation of the Trungpa line at an early date. He studied with, among others, one of the reincarnations of the Jamgyon Kongtrul who wrote the most famous commentary on the Seven Points. In 1959 he fled to India in the wake of the Communist takeover in Tibet, courageously leading many of his people to safety (this period is described in his book Born in Tibet.) He came to England in the mid-sixties to study at Oxford, learned English, started to teach, and started one of the first Tibetan Buddhist centers in the West. He later dropped his monastic vows, married, and moved to America where he continued his teaching. He founded the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, a large and highly respected Buddhist university. Francesca Freemantle received er doctorate form the Scool of Asian and African Studies at London University. She is a scholar and translator of Sanskrit and Tibetan works, and was a student of Chogyam Trungpa for many years.