Updates

Dear Readers,

• Recently, during a personal retreat, the author realized, with deep regrets, that due to the extended time period of over 16 years that it took the author to finish compiling Book One and Book Two of Garchen Rinpoche’s Biography series, “The Lama of Many Lifetimes,” from 2003 until 2019, as well as the author’s inexperience, sporadic writing, and the overwhelming task of gathering a large amount of information from many different sources over the years, human error crept in, and  there has been a lack of source citations for some quotes and for some other writings in a number of cases in both Book One ad Book Two.
   
• Additionally, due to the nature of oral-history-through-oral-translation, and through the kindness and assistance of Lama Thupten Nima (Gape Lama), Lama Bu Nima, Ruyu Gan and a few Tibetan friends, the author also found out that there has been a number of minor detail discrepancies, as well as spelling errors of Tibetan names of people and places.
   
• All of the above-mentioned mistakes will be rectified to the best of the author's ability, and will be updated on Garchen Rinpoche’s Biography Website at www.garchenbiography.us (see Errata page under More): https://garchenbiography.us/errata. Should you find anything else that needs to be rectified, please kindly contact the author. 
   
• With all humility, the author asks for everyone’s patience and understanding, and may all shortcomings and mistakes be purified and transformed. The author welcomes all comments, so please don't hesitate to write to:  suesueluu@yahoo.com.

With love and gratitude always,
Sue-Sue (Tâm Bảo Đàn) 

May 8, 2021

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BOOK ONE - UPDATES & CORRECTIONS [last updated on Oct. 19, 2022]

• p. 11 – paragraph 5, change to the following: "Sometimes it felt…. the spontaneous warmth of his love? Once I read a quote from somewhere that it is the nature of the unconditional love of an individual that can start a chain of reaction of common goodness, and in ways that are both viral and enduring. This nature of unconditional love without a doubt can actually unfold the potentiality in others. And, yes, that is exactly what Garchen Rinpoche embodies and embraces fully."
• p. 13 – lines 3 and 4, remove "crazy-wisdom" throughout [*in accordance with the request of the Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and the approval of Garchen Rinpoche]. Line 3 will read as follows:  "an accomplished nineteenth-century tantric yogi of unbounded, eccentric behaviors." Line 4 will be removed completely.
• p. 45 – remove "crazy-wisdom" in footnote
• p. 63 – line 2, remove "crazy-wisdom"
• p. 73 – lines 6, 7 and 12 , remove "crazy-wisdom"
• p. 88 – first paragraph, replace "seven" with “eight” children
• p. 88 – modify list, add name of one more child—see below:

 ༄ [Trinley Gyaltsen —not recorded in this note]  
༄ [Tsewang Trinley or Tsetren —not recorded in this note]   

• p. 119 – first paragraph, modify to: “Marpa had played many different roles in his life. He was portrayed as a scholar, a practitioner, a translator and a teacher, However, it was Marpa the farmer who, in spite of his wife’s pleading and complaint, decided “to plow the field one morning while waiting for the appearance of sinful young man who was predestined to become his greatest spiritual son.” 
• p. 119 – second paragraph, modify to: "The great translator….. of a farmer to prepare the fertile field of potentiality in Milarepa, as expressed ten centuries later by one writer, a student of the  Whispering Lineage.”
• p. 136 - footnote 8, undocumented source
• p. 138-139 – lines 17-18 and lines 1-11, undocumented source 
• p. 187 – line 11, remove "crazy-wisdom"
• p. 188 – line 14, remove "crazy-wisdom"
• p. 191 – line 17, remove "crazy-wisdom"
• p. 194 – remove lines 11-17 about the 6th Dalai Lama
• p. 194-195 — lines 19-21 and lines 1-2, replace with:  "Rumor  has it that the Seventh Garchen Rinpoche, Gar Thinley Yongkyab, had a number of spiritual consorts, and these female companions came from all walks of life. They included beautiful and ugly women, young and old, nice and rude, wealthy and poor, and even those without a nose, and with mental sicknesses and incurable diseases."
• p. 197 – lines 11 and 17, remove "crazy-wisdom"
• p. 199 – line 5, remove "crazy-wisdom"
• p. 200 – line 3, remove “with a hint of sadness in his voice”
• p. 212 – sixth line, replace "Lord Jigten Sumgon" with "Ngulchu Thogme Zangpo"
• p. 212 – footnote, replace "Lord Jigten Sumgon" with "Ngulchu Thogme Zangpo"
• p. 221 – in the footnote, replace "six" with  “seven” other siblings
• p. 267 – lines 1 and 4, remove "crazy-wisdom" 

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BOOK TWO - UPDATES & CORRECTIONS [last updated on November 23, 2023]

• p. 30 – line 4, replace "1959" with "1954"
• p. 29-20 -- need to update source citing
• p. 33 – line 3, modify: the blessings of "the" Triple Gems
• p. 34 – photo caption needs correction of names
• p. 35 – photo caption needs correction of names
• p. 37 – in the footnote, remove "More information can be found... as shown in Book Two."
• p. 45 – source: Hicks, Roger. Hidden Tibet: The Land and Its People. Dorset: Element Books, 1988
• p. 45 & 46 – last paragraph & first paragraph, source: Gape Lama
• p. 52 – photo caption, remove "1980s" 
• p. 79 – Phakchok Rinpoche (not Pachok Rinpoche)
• p. 80 – www.phakchokrinpoche.org (not pachokrinpoche.org)
• Photo collection – www.panoramio.com is no longer available
• Letter to my disciples – a more accurate spelling of "Gar Nyongpa" is "Gar Nyonpa"
• p. 94 -- source: need to update citing
• p. 102 – line 8, remove "They were given the Soviet rifles called the type 50, and these were very powerful."
• p. 104 & 105 – line 20 & line 6, replace "Norsang" with "Dunchu" who is from the same family; Norsang was already captured by then. 
• p. 105 – lines 12 & 13, modify: "The next morning at dawn, they released the horses and the mules, and escaped further and further up the mountain. By then, most of the  men had already been killed."
• p. 106 – line 2, replace "the type 50 Soviet rifles"  with "the type AK 47 Soviet rifles"
• p. 107 – line 9, add a footnote after "He jumped down the cliff..."/footnote: "See subsection 8.5 Pemako/second paragraph on p. 340 regarding Garchen Rinpoche's explanation as to how one cannot break one's bones."
• p. 113 – a more accurate spelling of "Kargo Monastery" is "Khargo Monastery"
• p. 183 – a more accurate spelling of "Alak Gedun" is "Alak Gendun"
• p. 214 – the prison's commander-in-chief, "Ma Dhu Thrang", actually means Captain Ma. Ma is the surname. "Dhu Thrang" means "captain" in Chinese.
• p. 243 – according to Wikipedia, the figure is 3 million, not 13 to 14 million
• p. 270 – a more accurate spelling of "Kham Khyen Rab Gyaltso" is "Kham Khyen Rab Gyamtso"
• p. 283 – should be "gya ma," not "gyamna"
• p. 289 – subsection 8.3.6 should be 8.3.7
• p. 290 – line 13, replace "Hey, brother!" with "Hey, Abei!" ("Abei" is an endearing Tibetan term which means dear, darling or sweet one)
• p. 291 – subsection 8.3.7 should be 8.3.8
• p. 292 – subsection 8.3.8 should be 8.3.9
• p. 295 – Abo Lama's two siblings who passed away were his older sister and younge brother, not two older siblings.
• p. 296 – subsection 8.3.9 should be 8.3.10
• p. 301 – subsection 8.3.10 should be 8.3.11
• p. 304 – subsection 8.3.11 should be 8.3.12
• p. 306 – subsection 8.3.12 should be 8.3.13
• p. 321 – "Dudul Wangmo" can be spelled as "Dundul Wangmo" and she is Garchen Rinpoche's relative, not a direct niece. 
• p. 324 -- source: need to update citing
• p. 335 & p. 353 – Wikipedia Commons should be Wikimedia Commons
• p. 343 – line 15, Ama Dega: "de" means "well-being;"  "ga" means "joy, delight;" Garchen Rinpoche uses the phrase "jyor-me" which means without wealth, poor. The local people called Ama Dega a "bondless mother," but that is not the meaning of Ama Dega per sé.
• p. 349-350 & 372 – the office who saved Garchen Rinpoche from starvation was Captain Ma; the officer who allowed Rinpoche to go to Pemako was Captain Wan.
• p. 353 – replace Khyen Gyam's "sister" with  Khyen Gyam's "relative"
• p. 356 – per Gape Lama's and Lama Bu Nima's clarification: both lamas suspected that the young woman is unlikely to be HH Dalai Lama's niece, because HH Dalai Lama was born in Amdo and most of his relatives were with him in Lhasa. After HH Dalai Lama left for India, his surviving relatives had followed him to India.
• p. 359 – Tamden is the husband of Khyen Gyam's relative living in Gyatsa Zong. He is not Khyen Gyam's direct brother-in-law.
• p. 403 – "Semo" is the honorific term for daughter or princess; it is a title, not part of the original name Dechen Yudron.
• p. 403 & 408 – the statue of Chenrezig in Dharamsala is not made of wood. 
• p. 410 – subsection 8.6.10 should be 8.6.9
• p. 411 – subsection 8.6.11 should be 8.6.10
• p. 414 – subsection 8.6.12 should be 8.6.11
• p. 415 – subsection 8.6.13 should be 8.6.12
• p. 416 – subsection 8.6.14 should be 8.9.13
• p. 426 – line 1, modify: "Years ago, in 1991, when I was over a month pregnant with our first child, Oliver, the co-editor of this book..."