"To Tibetan Buddhists, Guru Rinpoche is a Buddha. This book recounts Guru Rinpoche's historic visit to Tibet and explains his continuing significance to Buddhists. In doing so, it illustrates how a country whose powerful armies overran the capital of China and installed a puppet emperor came to abandon its aggressive military campaigns; this transformation was due to Guru Rinpoche, who tamed and converted Tibet to Buddhism and thereby changed the course of Asian history.".

"Four very different accounts of his story are presented: two Buddhist (one by Jamgon Kongtrul and one by Dorje Tso); one according to the pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion, Bon; and one based on Indian sources and early Tibetan historical documents. Also included are a set of supplications to Guru Rinpoche, as well as Jamgon Kongtrul's visualizations written to accompany these supplications.

The result is the most extensive set of materials on Guru Rinpoche ever to appear in a Western language."--BOOK JACKET.