Interview with Naomi Levine - Chronicles of love and death

Norma (or Naomi) Levine was born near Montreal, Canada and after completing her graduate degrees in Drama and Literature from McGill and Toronto Universities, moved to London UK in the 70’s. Her thesis on a British playwright, brought her to Hay-on-Wye in the Black Mountains of Wales where she dropped out of academic life, opened up the first natural food shop, and turned on to Buddhism after meeting the 16th Karmapa. She has travelled extensively in Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Ladakh, Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh; and organised pilgrimages to Mt. Kailash in Western Tibet and the hidden land of Pemako in Arunachal Pradesh (NE India). Naomi 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... Naomi saga is not just a personal memoir of the five years that she spent with the 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. You can find this book here : https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/... If you want to know more about Naomie Levine : https://www.facebook.com/share/14xS1v...