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 Monlam, a position he has kept until now.

Michele Martin (translator) 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: The Karmapas and Their Mahamudra Forefathers
Letter from H.H. the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa		ix
Letter from Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche		xi
A Note on Phonetics and Transliteration		xii
Preface		xiii
About the Murals		xv
PART ONE The Illustrated Lives of the Five Kagyu Forefathers
	Introduction	3
	Lord Telopa Sherap Sangpo	9
	The Powerful Naropa, Scholar and Siddha	23
	Marpa Lotsasa Chokyi Lodro	39
	Jetsun Milarepa, Lord of Yogins	53
	Lord of Dharma Gampopa	67
PART TWO The Illustrated Lives of the Seventeen Karmapas
	Introduction	85
	The First Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa	89
	The Second Karmapa Karma Paksi	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 Janchup 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 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 Nama Buddha and the Thrangu 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