Songs of a Wild Yak (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781539367895)

About Ngodup Paljor . . . These are the poems of a "secretary to mountains", the poems of a man who walked mountains and crossed vast cultural divides more precipitous then grand canyons, while maintaining his curiosity and delight in the process of transformation. He walked over a bridge from the highlands of Western Tibet to life in Alaska's largest city. Along the way he was a refugee, a monk and a student, was fluent in Tibetan, Hindi, Sanskrit, Pali, Thai, and English; served as a translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, co-authored books with sino-asiatic authority John Blofeld; was a assistant professor of Tibetan studies at the University of Hawaii, and a cook and a longshoreman in Anchorage. But his real love was to hike the ridges and trails of mountains, bathe in icy water and write poems while drinking Tibetan tea near noisy streams. He himself served as a bridge for others to cross by offering his deep understanding of Buddhist philosophy, not only in the Tibetan Mahayana form but also of the Hinayana and Zen schools, to his American friends. Although his modesty did not allow him to call himself a teacher, he was, nonetheless, a teacher to those who knew him. His greatest desire was to help the Tibetan people overcome their suffering under the illegal occupation of their country and the conditions of exile in India and Nepal. He founded The Alaska Tibet Committee and Khawachen Dharma Center to help promote knowledge about Tibet. His compassion extended to all peoples and all of natures energies; plants, rocks, animals, earth, air, and waters. He studied the traditions of the original inhabitants of Turtle Island and felt kinship with them. He was a citizen of Mother Earth. Paljor died as the result of an accident at the Port of Anchorage, while working as a longshoreman, full moon, October 25, 1988. These poems are all that are left, treasure them.