Shang Shung Institute in Austria Announces New Book by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

In the next two months the latest book by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu about Tibetan Medicine called "Being Born, Living and Dying" will be published by Shang Shung Edizioni. This book is the first "visible" result of the Ka-ter Translation Project (the main project of the Shang Shung Institute Austria), as this text was the study-text of the First Training for Translators from Tibetan in 2003. The publication will appar in English and Italian editions with translations into other languaes eventually forthcoming.

Oliver F. Leick
Shang-Shung Institute Austria
E-Mail: office@ssi-austria.at
Web: www.ssi-austria.at


Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, the founder of Shang Shung Institute was born in 1938 in Derghe, in Eastern Tibet. He was recognized at birth as a Tulku, a realized master who is born again of his own free will for the benefit of all beings. During the years of his studies, which, because of this recognition, were particularly extensive and in depth, he revealed such extraordinary learning ability that he was considered a scholar even though he was very young. Notwithstanding his youth, he was already well known by the end of the 1950s as a person with a profound knowledge of the Tibetan culture and also as a great spiritual teacher. Due to his fame in India and in Tibet, in 1960 Chögyal Namkhai Norbu was invited to Rome by Professor Giuseppe Tucci - an eminent scholar and founder of the Is.M.E.O. (Instituto per l'Africa e l'Oriente, one of the mayor institutes of oriental studies in Italy) - to collaborate in research. In 1962 he started to teach Tibetan language and literature in Naples at the Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, where he worked until 1992. For the first fifteen years of his residence in Italy Chögyal Namkhai Norbu concentrated mainly on the ancient history of Tibet and has done extensive research into the historical origins of Tibetan culture.

He is author of many books. Among his influential and profound works on Tibetan history and culture, several have been translated into English: "Necklace of Gzi, Journey Among the Tibetan Nomads" and "Drung Deu Bon."

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu is one of the primary living masters of Dzogchen. He is among the last generation of Tibetans to have been fully educated in Tibet. When he was eighteen years old he met his main master, Changchub Dorje, who aroused in him the complete awakening of his spiritual knowledge. In the mid ‘70s for the first time in the Western world, he was requested to give teachings. Since then, thanks to his deep understanding of the essence of Dzogchen and his natural capability of transmitting its meaning, a vast number of disciples of all nationalities have had an opportunity to appreciate the value of his teachings, to understand and practise them. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu is the founder of the Dzogchen Community, whose centers of study and practice are found all over the world. For many years Chögyal Namkhai Norbu has been tirelessly travelling around the world not only to spread the Dzogchen teaching, but also to dedicate himself to safeguarding Tibetan culture, a commitment which has taken him to China on various occasions and especially to Tibet.

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu is also the founder of A.S.I.A., an organization which works within Tibet to develop schools and hospitals.