With lively, engaging stories and exquisite portraits, this volume is sure to inspire all.

“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 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 the traditional style of Eatern Tibet used at the renowned Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Monastery in Nepal.