Chronicles of Love and Death: My years with the last spiritual king of Bhutan

Norma Levine has an extraordinary story to tell, a story that spans continents, cultures and even centuries. She had the great destiny to meet, fall in love with, and be loved by the ninth incarnation of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the reincarnate "lama king" of Bhutan, whose position in Bhutan was somewhat equivalent to that of the Dalai Lamas of Tibet ... the Shabdrungs were pushed out in 1907 by an ambitious and cruel warlord who was backed by the British Raj. The lineage descending from that warlord has ruled Bhutan since that time... Norma\\'s saga is not just a personal memoir of the fi ve years that she spent with Shabdrung. It looks at the human side of the reincarnate lamas of Tibetan Buddhism, at their emotional vulnerability when uprooted from homeland and cultural environment, and displaced from their traditional roles as temporal and spiritual leaders. It is a good read for any armchair traveler, and an insightful one for anyone who has ever met a reincarnate lama. I give i