THE TALE OF THE INCOMPARABLE PRINCE

The sole instance of a Tibetan novel, this 18th-century classic—in a first English translation—uses romance, war, and intrigue to depict the path to bodhisattva practice. Tshe ring dbang rgyal (1697-1763) is one of the great figures in Tibetan literature. Having begun studies at Sera Monastery at age five, he eventually chose a political career as a layman and during very turbulent years rose to become the most important man in Tibet after the Dalai Lama. Here, he tells the fictional life story of one Prince Kumaradvitiya, who uses diplomacy, kidnapping, and finally force of arms to win the beautiful Princess Manohari. While the two are enjoying conjugal bliss, Kumaradvitiya's father takes a new wife, Lavanya, and her father insists that the son produced by this union should inherit the throne. When they return home, Kumaradvitiya and Manohari befriend the boy and the prince agrees to act as regent for his half-brother. He has already been thinking of the ascetic life, and, when Lavanya unsuccessfully tries to seduce him, he's sent by her into exile, where he becomes a forest hermit and attains enlightenment. The complex story ends with a lyrical celebration of the prince's bodhicitta mind as he returns to the world to aid all beings. Tshe ring dbang rgyal's story uses poetry as well as prose, abounds in florid adjectives and metaphors, and frequently interposes Buddhist reflections as the action unfolds. In a helpful if brief introduction, translator Newman describes the author's religious and cultural background and use of Hindu sources for Buddhist ends. It is a pity that her English style (``Today I have the chance to have intercourse / With the amalgam of worldly beauty's essence'') frequently fails to do justice either to the novel's literary status or to her own Tibetan scholarship. Still, essential reading for lovers of Tibet, Buddhism, and epic literature.