The Karmapas and Their Mahamudra Forefathers collects fascinating accounts of the lives of the Karmapas and of their forefathers in the Mahamudra practice lineage. Each story is accompanied by a beautiful, full-color illustration of its subject in the lineage, as depicted in a traditional style of Eastern Tibet used at the renowned Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Monastery in Nepal.

“I believe the life a lama lives is the greatest instruction to the students who follow him or her. It is an instruction we can actually see. The lama's deeds display the Dharma in action for us. They can instruct our hearts with the fullness of lived experience. In the lama's actions we can observe how the mind turns to Dharma, and how that Dharma becomes a path. We can watch how the path eliminates confusion, and how confusion arises as wisdom.”– H.H. the Seventeenth Karmapa

The Karmapas and Their Mahamudra Forefathers: An Illustrated Guide, Khenpo Sherap Phuntsok, Michele Martin, Wisdom Publications, Paperback, 344 Pages, 2016, $34.95

Khenpo Sherap Phuntsok met Kyabje Thrangu Rinpoche as a young boy and became a monk at Thrangu Rinpoche’s monastery. There he studied all aspects of ritual practice at the monastery and became a chant master. At the age of sixteen he entered Thrangu Rinpoche’s monastic college in Namo Buddha, Nepal, where he studied the curriculum of the Kagyu tradition. At the age of twenty-one, he was made an assistant teacher in 2001 by Kyabje Thrangu Rinpoche and was awarded the title of Khenpo in 2003. In 2005, the Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje appointed Khenpo Sherap junior chant master for the Great Kagyu Mönlam, a position he has kept until now.

Michele Martin has been a Buddhist practitioner for over forty years and has spent the last thirty of those based in Nepal and India studying with Tibetan lamas and working as a translator of oral and written Tibetan. With two graduate degrees from Yale, she also had a long career in publishing and is a founding board member of the Tibetan Buddhist Research Center. Among numerous translations from Tibetan texts on philosophy, meditation, and history, her books include Music in the Sky: The Life, Art, and Teachings of the Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje (author and translator) and Gaining Certainty in the View (translator). In cooperation with others, she has edited and translated Song for the King: Saraha on Mahamudra Meditation; The Karmapas and Their Mahamudra Forefathers: An Illustrated Guide; The First Karmapa: The Life and Teachings of Dusum Khyenpa; and Traveling the Path of Compassion: A Commentary on the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva.

Contents: Karmapas and Their Mahamudra Forfathers: An Illustrated Guide
Letter from H.H. the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa	ix
Letter from Kenchen Thrangu Rinpoche	xi
A Note on Phonetics and Transliteration	xii
Preface	xiii
Part One
The Illustrated Lives of the Five Kagyu Forefathers
Introduction	3
Lord Telopa Shaerap Sangpo	9
The Powerful Naropa, Scholar and Siddha	23
Marpa Lotsawa Chokyi Lodro	39
Jetsun Milarepa, Lord of Yogins	53
Lord of Dharma Gampopa	67
Part Two
The Illustrated Lives of the Sevneteen Karmapas
Introduction	85
The First Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa	89
The Second Karmapa Karma Pakshi	97
The Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje	107
The Fourth Karmapa Rolpai Dorje	115
The Fifth Karmapa Deshin Shekpa	123
The Sixth Karmapa Thongwa Donden	131
The Seventh Karmapa Chodrak Gyatso	137
The Eighth Karmapa Mikyo Dorje	145
The Ninth Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje	153
The Tenth Karmapa Choying Dorje	159
The Eleventh Karmapa Yeshe Dorje	167
The Twelfth Karmapa Jangchup Dorje	173
The Thirteenth Karmapa Dudul Dorje	181
The Fourteenth Karmapa Thekchok Dorje	187
The Fifteenth Karmapa Khakhyap Dorje	193
The Sixteenth Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje	201
The Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje	211
Part Three
The Patron, Author, and Artist of the Illustrated Lives
A Biography of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche	227
A Biography of khenpo Sherap Phuntsok	231
A Biography of the Painter Lama Rigzin	233
Photo Gallery: The Artists at Work	235
A Brief History of Namo Buddha and Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Monastery	243
Acknowledgments	263
Glossary	265
List of Persons and Deities Featured in the Paintings	273
Bibliography	283
Index	287
About the Translator	313