Song of the Road ─ The Poetic Travel Journal of Tsarchen Losal Gyatso

In Song of the Road, Tsarchen Losal Gyatso (1502-66), a tantric master of the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, weaves ecstatic poetry, song, and accounts of visionary experiences into a record of pilgrimage to central Tibet. Translated for the first time here, Tsarchen’s work, a favorite of the Fifth Dalai Lama, brims with striking descriptions of encounters with the divine as well as lyrical portraits of Tibetan landscape. The literary flights of Song of the Road are anchored by Tsarchen’s candid observations on the social and political climate of his day, including a rare example in Tibetan literature of open critique of religious power.

In his introduction and copious notes, Cyrus Stearns unearths the layers of meaning concealed in the text, excavating the history, legends, and lore associated with people and places encountered on the pilgrimage, revealing the spiritual as well as geographical topography of Tsarchen's journey.

Cyrus Stearns has been a student of Tibetan language, literature, and religion since 1973, when he began studying with the great Tibetan polymath, Dezhung Rinpoche (1906?87), and serving as his principal translator. In 1985 Cyrus was the leader of the Smithsonian Institutes Associates Tour to Tibet and China, one of the first groups allowed into Tibet after many years of travel restriction by the Chinese government, and he has lived in Asia eight years all together. Since receiving a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Washington in 1996, he has established himself as one of the most admired translators of Tibetan literature today. His numerous books include Taking the Result As the Path, Hermit of Go Cliffs, and King of the Empty Plain. He is currently a fellow at the Tsadra Foundation and a translator for the Library of Tibetan Classics. He lives in the woods on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, Washington.