Lama Anagarika Govinda (1898 – 1985).

(By Tsem Rinpoche)

Lama Anagarika Govinda (1898 – 1985) was a towering – figure who introduced the world to Tibetan Buddhism. Multi-talented, he was an accomplished Buddhist scholar, philosopher, poet, painter as well as being the founder of the Arya Maitreya Mandala order. Despite coming from a privileged European background , Lama Anagarika Govinda was courageous enough to leave his comfort zone and indeed go through various hardships to learn about Buddhism in Ceylon, and later India and Tibet. Today, more than 30 years after his passing, his life story and writings continue to inspire many on their spiritual paths.
 

Early Life in Europe

Lama Anagarika Govinda was born in Waldheim, Germany.

On 17 May 1898 in Waldheim, Germany, Lama Anagarika Govinda was born as Ernst Lothar Hoffmann (Ernst Hoffmann) to a German father and a Bolivian mother. His childhood was comfortable since his father was a successful businessman who owned a cigar factory and silver mines in South Africa. He had an older brother named Oscar Hoffmann.

However, his idyllic childhood was shaken when his mother passed away. Ernst Hoffmann was only three years old at the time. After the tragedy, Ernst and Oscar Hoffman were taken care of by their maternal aunt, Matilde. In their new home, the boys were exposed to multiple languages. Their aunt spoke Spanish, their maternal grandmother French, while their uncle, Matilde’s husband, spoke German to the boys.

By the tender age of sixteen, Ernst Hoffman had started to read various books by famous philosophers such as Plato and Arthur Schopenhauer. In addition, he read the Upanishads, a collection of texts encompassing the central philosophy of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Brought up as a Christian, he was also able to make comparative studies of the main religions of the world: Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam to determine which faith appealed to him the most. In the end, he chose Buddhism because he thought its code of morality was based on the premise of individual freedom. So when he turned 18 years old, he became a Buddhist and joined the Union of Buddhist Living (Bund Für Buddhistisches Leben).

While Hoffman found solace in Buddhism, tumultuous events were raging in Europe. World War I was at its heights and in October 1916, Ernst Hoffmann was plucked out of his studies and was drafted into the German Army and sent to Italy. There are only scant surviving records of his time in the military. We do know, however, that he was later infected with tuberculosis, and later admitted to a hospital in Milan in 1918. He was then transferred to a sanatorium in the Black Forest to recuperate and was later discharged in the same year. After his recovery, he briefly continued his study at Freiburg University, Switzerland where he read philosophy, archaeology, and psychology. Then Ernst Hoffmann went on to study at the University of Naples where he majored in archaeology and learned the Siamese language in order to read a Pali Canon, which was donated by the King of Siam to the university. During his time in Italy, he conducted explorations of the local stone-age structures and the famous cylindrical stone towers of Nuraghi in Sardinia and other archaeological sites in Italy. Hoffmann also visited Tunisia, Morocco, and Malta for the purpose of archaeological exploration.

Lama Govinda spent several years on Capri, Italy before he moved to Ceylon (the present-day Sri Lanka).

Then in search of better opportunities, he decided to move to the island of Capri where he found a job at a photo studio. The studio belonged to Mrs. Anne Habermann, a widow who had lost her daughter to tuberculosis. Being a kind woman, she treated Hoffmann like her own child, and her affection was reciprocated as Hoffmann regarded Mrs. Habermann as his foster mother.

On Capri, Ernst Hoffmann also befriended Earl Brewster, an American artist and writer who shared his interest in Buddhism. Both experimented with Satti-Patthana, a meditation technique aimed at achieving an awareness of the conscious mind, mental phenomena, feelings and the body. He also became interested in the work of Ludwig Klages, a German philosopher whose work on biometric metaphysics influenced his own approach to understanding Buddhism. In 1922, Earl Brewster went to Ceylon, the present-day Sri Lanka. Although Hoffmann would have liked nothing better than to join him, he was not able to due to having insufficient funds. While residing on Capri, Hoffman also had the good fortune of learning to paint from various artists. He experimented with landscape scenes and colours. His painting style was often compared to the works of Nicholas Roerich.

Sri Lanka and Burma

Polgasduwa Monastery in Sri Lanka.

By 1928 Hoffman had saved up adequate funds and proceeded to move to Ceylon with his foster mother. There he went to stay at the Polgasduwa Monastery. He found the monastery to be in a state of disrepair because of the abbot, Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera, a German monk who was a scholar and a teacher of Theravada Buddhism, had been forced to live in exile during the war.

Burma ca. the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Hoffmann eventually became a student of Nyanatiloka Thera, who gave him the name Govinda. Under his teacher’s guidance, he continued to study meditation and Pali language. It was here in Ceylon Hoffmann believed that he had found Buddhism in its purest form.

Lama Govinda came to Ceylon with the intention of becoming a monk. However, Anagarika Dharmapala, a Buddhist Sinhalese writer, convinced him not to do so as he would have faced travel restrictions as a monk. Therefore, he opted to be an anagarika (homeless one) for nine weeks. From this point onward, Hoffmann will be referred to as Lama Anagarika Govinda (Lama Govinda).

Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera (seated centre) and Lama Govinda (seated left) in Burma.

In March 1929, Lama Govinda went to Burma on a pilgrimage and later he was joined by Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera, who travelled there to pay homage to his teacher who had recently passed away. During this journey, Lama Anagarika Govinda and Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera visited Mandalay where they managed to secure a meeting with U Khanti, a great man who volunteered to take charge of the restoration of the stupas and temples on a sacred hill. An attendant monk of U Khanti informed Lama Govinda that his master was the incarnation of King Mindon Min who as monarch had commissioned the building of the temples and stupas in that area.

In 1929, Lama Govinda, together with several other students of Ven. Nyanatiloka, established the International Buddhist Union (IBU) and made Venerable Nyanatiloka Thera its leader. The objective of IBU was “… to unite all Buddhists worldwide and to promote Buddhism through the virtuous and exemplary conduct of practicing Buddhists.” Lama Govinda took the role of the general secretary and went to Europe and Burma to promote and gain support for IBU.

In 1930, Lama Govinda met with a Sinhalese tea planter who made his estate available for him to build the Variyagoda Hermitage. Govinda stayed here for a year to study Pali and Abhidhamma.

Meeting Domo Geshe Rinpoche and Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism

Ghoom Monastery in India.

In April 1931, Lama Govinda, in his capacity as the general secretary of IBU, participated in All-India Buddhist Conference in Darjeeling, India to spread the Theravadan Buddhist Tradition. He used this opportunity to travel within India. One day during his travels Lama Govinda was caught in a-three-day storm and had to take refuge at Ghoom Monastery under Domo Geshe Rinpoche Ngawang Kalsang (1866 – 1936). Prior to coming to India, Lama Govinda held this belief that Tibetan Buddhism had “degenerated into a system of demon worship and weird beliefs.” However, in this Gelugpa Monastery, he learned otherwise and even found himself touched deeply as he wrote:

Some inexplicable force seemed to keep me back, and the longer I stayed on in this magic world into which I had dropped by a strange concatenation of circumstances, the more I felt that a hitherto unknown form of reality was revealed to me and that I was on the threshold of a new life.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part I; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Left: The statue of Domo Geshe Rinpoche Ngawang Kalsang. Right: The mummified body of Domo Geshe Rinpoche Ngawang Kalsang.

At Ghoom Monastery, Lama Govinda befriended the caretaker, Kachenla, who acted as a spiritual father to him. From Kachenla, he learned how to handle sacred books, how to conduct prayers, and how to go around the monastery. He asked Kachenla if he could meet the abbot of Ghoom Monastery, Domo Geshe Rinpoche. When the two finally met, Lama Govinda was in complete awe. Domo Geshe Rinpoche advised Lama Govinda to:

… never to regard himself as superior to others. As soon, however, as we understand that we live in exactly that world which we deserve, we shall recognise the faults of others as our own.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part I; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Since Lama Govinda’s knowledge of Buddhism was quite extensive, Domo Geshe Rinpoche:

… found it unnecessary to instruct his disciple in doctrinal matters, and instead, proceeded directly to teach him the practice of meditation, which in Lama Govinda’s case was more important than theoretical knowledge.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part I; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Although their time together was relatively short, Domo Geshe Rinpoche gave Lama Govinda a sense of harmony and peace that he had never experienced before. According to Lama Govinda:

Merely to be in the man’s presence seemed to be enough to dissolve all problems, to make them non-existent, like darkness in the presence of light.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part I; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Before they parted ways, Domo Geshe Rinpoche gave Lama Govinda “a small but exquisitely finished terracotta statue of Buddha Shakyamuni.” Later in his life, this Buddha statue served as a talisman for Lama Govinda. Even people with hostile intentions became hospitable upon seeing the statue. The exquisite Buddha image was the handiwork of Kachenla, the old temple caretaker who was a dear friend of Lama Govinda.

Rati Petit aka. Li Gotami (1906 – 1988), Lama Govinda’s wife.

In order to be close to his teacher, Domo Geshe Rinpoche, Lama Govinda stayed in India and visited Tibet several times in the early 1930s. Although he had been inducted into Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Govinda was on good terms with his Theravada Buddhist teacher, Nyanatiloka Thera. However, his waning interest in IBU caused significant reductions in the organisation’s activities which led to its eventual closure. To support himself in India, Lama Govinda taught Buddhist culture, French and German languages at Vishva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan. It was during this time he gave a lecture on Buddhist architecture that would later be published as a book titled Psycho-Cosmic Symbolism of the Buddhist Stupa.

On the advice of Domo Geshe Rinpoche, Lama Govinda established the Arya Maitreya Mandala in 1933. In the following year in Calcutta, he held his first painting exhibition. During his sojourn in India, he held various positions in several universities and gave lectures on the subject of archaeology, Buddhist philosophy, and history. He was also the general secretary of International Buddhist University Association (IBUA) (1935 – 1945) and a guest lecturer at the University of Allahabad and Patna University (1936). Some of his lectures were published as books:

• His lecture on Buddhist Psychology in 1939 at Patna University was published as a book titled The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist Philosophy.
• His lecture at Vishva-Bharati University in Shantininekan was published as a book titled Psycho-Cosmic Symbolism of the Buddhist Stupa.

However, not everything went smoothly for Lama Govinda. In 1934, he went to Sri Lanka to give several lectures on Tibetan Buddhism. There he gained support to build a Buddhist university in Sarnath but in the end, the support proved to be insufficient, and he ran out of money.

Between 1937 – 1940, Lama Govinda settled in Darjeeling with his foster mother, Mrs. Habermann. In 1938, Lama Govinda became a British citizen. It was around this time, too that, Lama Govinda met his future wife, Rati Petit. Their first encounter took place when the latter was making her way to the hostel where Lama Govinda stayed at the time. She described the encounter as follows:

A door opened and out strolled this handsome, smiling foreigner dressed in the burgundy robes of a monk. She recalled asking herself who this “bright merry person” might be, and in retrospect (at least on her part) remembered the incident as very romantic.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part I; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Under the guidance of Lama Govinda, Rati Petit’s interest in Buddhism flourished. Lama Govinda took her to meet with his teacher, Domo Geshe Rinpoche. Many years later in his book The Way of the White Clouds, Lama Govinda recalled that Domo Geshe Rinpoche had predicted Rati Petit would become Lama Govinda’s wife in 1947. However, he kept this information to himself until the marriage took place. In addition to Rati Petit, Govinda was a teacher to another prominent lady, Indira Nehru, the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru and the future female Prime minister of India.

Indira Nehru and her father, Jawaharlal Nehru.

A rare picture of Anne Habermann at Ghoom Monastery. Lama Govinda brought her to visit Ghoom Monastery on several occasions.

Domo Geshe Rinpoche passed away in 1936. When he was alive, Domo Geshe Rinpoche had advised his students to control their grief because his incarnation would be returning soon. Therefore, when his beloved teacher passed away in 1937, Lama Govinda dealt with his sorrow in silence. Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s subsequent incarnation was found in 1937.

Lama Govinda continued with his travels and explorations. In Sikkim, he became the friend of the Maharaja, who helped him by providing the necessary resources to explore various places in Tibet and India. He also visited numerous hermitages including the Milarepa’s retreat cave. He also encountered another famous hermit, Lama Gomchen of Lachen who was also the teacher of Alexandra David-Neel.

Lama Gomchen and Lama Govinda had a meaningful conversation and agreed that:

It is not the robe or the shaven head but the overcoming of selfish desires that makes the saint [and] the knowledge that springs from the experience of ultimate reality in meditation … Mere goodness and morality without wisdom is as useless as knowledge without goodness.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part I; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Involvement in World War II

Prison camp in Ahmednagar where Lama Govinda was imprisoned until he was transferred to Dehra Dun.

Although Lama Govinda had become a British citizen since 1938, his relationship with anti- British personalities (e.g., his friendship with the Nehru family) had generated a lot of suspicion from the British authorities that resulted in his imprisonment in 1942. At first, he was confined to a prison camp in Ahmednagar where his anti-fascist sentiments created trouble for him with the Nazis who were also jailed there. In 1942, the British government transferred him to a special anti-fascist prison camp in Dehra Dun where he was reunited with his Theravada Buddhist teacher, Nyanatiloka, and another German monk, Nyanaponika. Lama Govinda and Nyanaponika became good friends, and they translated Buddhist texts together.

Lama Govinda during his imprisonment in Dehra Dun.

Due to their exemplary good behaviour, the British government gave Lama Govinda and several other inmates passes that allowed them to leave the prison and explore the town and other places twice a week between 8 am and 5 pm. When the war ended, Lama Govinda was among the first batch of prisoners to be released because he had caused no trouble during his time in prison. Nyanaponika and Lama Govinda would only meet once more in Europe, 25 years after their release from prison.

Marriage and Life in Tibet

Upon his release from prison, Lama Govinda resumed his teaching activities at Patna University and Vishva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan. The latter had been established by Rabindranath Tagore, the famous poet and Nobel Prize winner. During this time, he wrote regular articles for the Mahabodhi, a monthly journal of the Mahabodhi Society in Calcutta. According to Ken Winkler, Lama Govinda’s biographer, the articles were:

…somewhat lofty in content, though his earnestness is just as evident as his determination to present his views on Buddhism. He remained a quiet, scholarly writer, pedantic in his articles and deeply committed to explaining his findings.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part I; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Lama Govinda and Li Gotami after their wedding in 1947.

In addition to his teaching commitments, Lama Govinda managed to use his connections to exhibit his artwork in Bombay during this period. While Lama Govinda was in prison, his old student, Rati Petit, or at this point known professionally as Li Gotami, studied under the guidance of Abanindranath Tagore and became an accomplished artist in her own right. Abanindranath Tagore advised Li Gotami to specialise in either drawing illustration for children books or in Tibetan pictures as she showed special aptitude for these two topics. It was under these circumstances that Li Gotami and Lama Govinda revived their friendship and finally married in four separate ceremonies in 1947. Lama Govinda performed one of the ceremonies in his capacity as a lama. Two other ceremonies were held in Darjeeling and Bombay, and the fourth was held in Tse-Choling Monastery in Chumbi Valley under the guidance of Ajorepa Rinpoche.

Ajorepa Rinpoche and Li Gotami.

Prior to meeting Ajorepa Rinpoche, Lama Govinda had worked very hard to obtain the required permits to enter Tibet and explore the area of Tsaparang, the former capital of the ancient Kingdom of Guge. When the newly married couple travelled for this purpose, they arrived at Tse-Choling Monastery, who was at the time under the leadership of Ajorepa Rinpoche, the incarnation of the eighth century Siddha, Dombi-Heruka. Lama Govinda regarded Ajorepa Rinpoche as one of his most significant teachers, and received at least one initiation from this lama. Ajorepa Rinpoche also inducted both Lama Govinda and Li Gotami into the Kagyupa Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In the same year, Lama Govinda became an Indian citizen.

Lama Govinda remembered the time they spent at Tse-Choling Monastery fondly:

We also found plenty of work to do besides our devotional practices, as there were books to study, notes to be taken, woodcuts to be printed and some outstanding frescoes to be copied or traced in outline . . . Also outside the monastery, there was plenty to do in the way of sketching and photographing. We certainly had not one dull moment, and in-between we had ample opportunities of discussing religious questions with Ajo Rimpoche . . .

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part I; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

After spending some time at Tse-Choling Monastery, in September 1947, the couple continued their journey to the city of Gyantse where several government offices were located. Lama Govinda continued to lobby to gain permission to travel to certain parts of Tibet that required special passes, including Tsaparang.

They stayed in Gyantse for four months and used the time to explore various monasteries, retreat places, festivals and religious ceremony. Li Gotami took many pictures of anything that interested her. Finally, they received the necessary permits in January 1948, and the couple returned to India to prepare for their expedition to Tsaparang.

The Tsaparang Expedition

The remains of the ancient kingdom of Guge in Tsaparang.

In July 1948, in exchange for a written account of the trip, The Illustrated Weekly of India agreed to sponsor the Lama Govinda’s and Li Gotami’s two-year expedition to Tsaparang, the centre of activities for the ancient kingdom of Guge. During this expedition, Li Gotami and Govinda took many pictures that would later appear in their books, Lama Govinda’s The Way of the White Clouds and Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, and Li Gotami’s Tibet in Pictures.

During the expedition, the couple often had to put up with harsh living conditions. They had to face extreme cold weather and trekked through dangerous landscapes. Their diet mostly consisted of chappatis and porridge that was cooked over a brushwood fire. Due to the very low temperature, they had to drink their tea immediately after cooking or otherwise, the tea would freeze. Li Gotami recalled:

A storm then broke. The rain nearly froze us while the wind howled like hungry wolves around us. Oh, those winds! They are Tibet’s worst enemy, and if I were ever asked to picture them, I would draw a hundred thousand ice-bound daggers with the head of a howling wolf for every hilt.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

The beautiful Mount Kailash.

Lama Govinda found his visit to Mount Kailash to be one of the highlights of their journey. He described the mountain as follows:

There are mountains which are just mountains and there are mountains with personality. The personality of a mountain is more than merely a strange shape that makes it different from others – just as a strangely shaped face or strange actions do not make an individual into a personality. Personality consists in the power to influence others, and this power is due to consistency, harmony, and one-pointedness of character. If these qualities are present in an individual, in their highest perfection, then this individual is a fit leader of humanity, either as a ruler, a thinker, or a saint, and we recognise him as a vessel of divine power. If these qualities are present in a mountain, we recognise it as a vessel of cosmic power, and we call it a sacred mountain.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Lama Govinda and Li Gotami took four to five days to circumambulate the sacred mountain. To the right of Mount Kailash, there was Lake Manasarovar, which represented the beginning of the day and the “invincible forces of the Buddhas. To the left, there was Lake Rakshastal, which represented the beginning of the night and “the Lake of the Dark Deities.”

Prior to reaching Tsaparang, Lama Govinda and Li Gotami arrived in the Valley of the Moon Castle where they encountered one of the most challenging experiences in their journey. Ivan Kovacs in his article, Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth, the Summary of His Life reiterated this experience based on Govinda’s book, The Way of the White Clouds:

He gives a detailed account of how they had to ford a river by means of a rope bridge that only had two steel cables for its main support, which were hanging side by side with nothing but short planks and sticks upon them that were fastened with ropes and wires. The yaks had to be unloaded, and the luggage carried separately across the bridge. But once it was the turn of the yaks to make the crossing they refused to step on to the swaying bridge and had to be allowed to swim across the river. This was a risky thing to accomplish because there was only one place on the opposite shore where they could safely get out of the stream—all the other places were so steep that they would surely have drowned. With some clever maneuvering and stone-throwing, the yaks were prevented from being swept downstream and safely made it to the other shore.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

To make the matter worse, they had to camp in the same location for more than one week because their guides had abandoned them. However, Lama Govinda and Li Gotami were not too disturbed by the unfortunate turn of events. They were absorbed by the beauty of their surroundings and the evidence of past ancient civilisations. They saw the remains of the stupas, temples, castles, and monasteries with 10th century frescoes. While waiting for the opportunity to meet the district governor to request for a fresh pack of animals that would help them to continue their journey, Li Gotami and Lama Govinda visited many archaeological sites in the area and did a lot of sketching.

The remains of the ancient kingdom of Guge in Tsaparang.

When they finally arrived in Tsaparang, Lama Govinda and Li Gotami again immersed themselves in the beauty of their surroundings:

As if woven of light the city stood against the evening sky, enhaloed by a rainbow, which made the scene as unbelievable as a fata morgana. We almost feared that the scene before us might disappear as suddenly as it had sprung up before our eyes, but it remained there as solid as a rock on which it was built. Even the rainbow – in itself a rare phenomenon in an almost rainless country like Western Tibet – remained steady for quite a long time, centred around the towering city like an emanation of its hidden treasures of golden images and luminous colours, in which the wisdom and the visions of a glorious past were enshrined.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

In Tsaparang, the couple lived in a hut in front of a cave, where a poor shepherd named Wangdu, lived with his family. Wangdu took care of the basic needs of Lama Govinda and Li Gotami by bringing them brushwood, water, and milk in exchange for payment for his services. There was no other family who lived in the area.

The beautiful frescoes in Tsaparang, Tibet.

The beautiful frescoes in Tsaparang, Tibet.

Li Gotami and Lama Govinda worked to document the surviving artworks that included the tracing and copying the frescoes and the statues in the temples’ remains. Lama Govinda remembered that the frescoes were of very high quality and covered the walls from the floor to the ceiling beyond the reach of human sight. The tracing of these frescoes was a very arduous task:

(m)erely to trace these delicate lines accurately demanded the most intense concentration.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

During this trip, the couple always started the day with pujas and prayers and then they resumed their work from morning to evening tracing the remains of the frescoes, sketching, and photographing. The pujas and prayers that they did every morning helped to renew the inspiration to complete the arduous work under the harsh circumstance. Lama Govinda recalled:

The temple walls were so cold that it became almost impossible to touch them without suffering excruciating pain, so that even tracing became a torture. Li had to keep her bottle of Chinese ink inside her amphag to prevent it from freezing and had to breathe from time to time on her brush to thaw the ink which tended to get solid after a few strokes . . . I remember once when she wept in despair on account of the excessive cold that made it almost impossible for her to hold the brush, her tears were frozen before they could reach the floor and bounced up from it as beads of ice with a thud.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Lama Govinda in front of the ruins of Guge Kingdom in Tsaparang, Western Tibet.

All this time Govinda and Li Gotami also found themselves confronted with various problems from the local Tibetans and their authorities who viewed their work with suspicion. However, whenever problems arose, he always remembered his root teacher Domo Geshe Rinpoche and the solution to the problems somehow appeared. In the end, they managed to complete the necessary tasks.

During the difficult return journey, they found out that the Himalaya passes were closed for three months until spring that year. While waiting for the passes to open, the couple lived in the rest-house run by a kind Nyingma Lama named Namgyal. Namgyal continued to take care of the couple although they had run out of money and other provisions. Around this period, they also met the Nyingma Abbot of Phiyang Monastery who was a person of great learning and wisdom. The Lama taught them the method of yoga practices and Tantric Sadhana.

When the passes were finally opened, the couple made the necessary preparation and returned to India. Lama Govinda described the conclusion of their journey as follows:

And so we left our “Shangrila,” the Valley of Happiness, and returned to the world, not knowing that Tibet’s hour of fate had struck and that we would never see it again, except in our dreams. But we knew that the Gurus and the treasures of memory that this unforgettable country had bestowed on us would remain with us till the end of our days and that, if we succeeded in passing on to others even a part of those treasures and of the Gurus’ teachings, we would feel that we had repaid a little of the debt of gratitude that we owe to Tibet and to our Teachers.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Settling Down in India

Li Gotami’s painting of Walter Evans-Wentz’s house in Kasar Devi, North India.

In India, Lama Govinda and Li Gotami rented a house from Walter Evans-Wentz, a writer, in Kasar Devi, North India. Kasar Devi or also known as Crank’s Ridge was a heaven for artists, spiritual seekers, and writers such as John Blofeld, Earl Brewster, Alfred Sorensen, Allen Ginsberg, and many others. At first, their life in Kasar Devi was quiet and peaceful. Li Gotami was busy with the more practical matter of running the household and her sketching work while, Lama Govinda was busy writing.

As Lama Govinda’s reputation grew in stature, many spiritual seekers started arriving at his house to discuss and learn about Tibetan Buddhism. In 1961, several American poets led by Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg visited Lama Govinda to learn about meditation and the used of drugs in meditation. As the number of visitors grew, the couple had to put up signs to prevent unwanted visitors from coming.

The 1960s and 1970s World Tours

Li Gotami, Lama Govinda, and Nyanaponika Thera during their meeting in Europe. The picture was taken between the late 1960s and early 1970s.

About thirty years after he left Europe, Lama Govinda realised that changing times on the continent meant that it was appropriate to bring the message of Tibetan Buddhism to Europe. Ken Winkler, Lama Govinda’s biographer, described the situation in Europe at the time:

…most people had little trust in the post-war promises and protested against what they considered meaningless and threatening in their societies. Young people, particularly in Western Europe, were looking for alternatives, which resulted in a growing interest in other cultures, especially those that were disappearing.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

The opportunity came when the Italian government invited Lama Govinda to participate and discuss about the fundamental problems of spiritual life in an-eight-day international religious conference in Venice, Italy. This opportunity was followed by another invitation from the Tibet and Buddhist societies in London, who asked Lama Govinda to give a series of lectures to their members. Lama Govinda spoke about Tibetan issues and the problems that ordinary Tibetans faced after the Chinese occupation. Due to the success of his lectures, Lama Govinda was invited to give lectures on Buddhism in various countries and continents (e.g., Japan, the United States, Europe, South Africa, and Southeast Asia). During these journeys, Lama Govinda made friends with many well-known personalities such as the author Luise Rinser, the philosopher Jean Gebser, the writer Alan Watts, the psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli, the philosopher Jean Gebser, and Armin Gottmann.

When Death Comes…

In 1975, Lama Govinda and Li Gotami came to live at the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, California under the invitation of Thathang Tulku Rinpoche, a Nyingma Lama and the founder of Dharma Publishing. During his stay in this institute, he started preparing for a compilation of his lectures in Shantiniketan for publication. Unfortunately, in November 1975, Lama Govinda suffered a serious heart attack, which weakened him considerably for several days before he started to recover.

In August 1977, Lama Govinda and Li Gotami went to West Germany to attend an exhibition of their publications and artworks organised by the government. During this trip, Lama Govinda also delivered several lectures in Germany and Switzerland. At the end of the year, he and his wife returned to California.

Suzuki Roshi, Li Gotami, and Lama Govinda.

Due to the health issues they were facing, the couple decided to live permanently in California. Li Gotami was suffering from Parkinson disease, and Lama Govinda thought that she would be able to receive better treatment in the United States than India. In 1978, Lama Govinda had to undergo a gall bladder surgery that confined him to his bed for a month, and Li Gotami was experiencing the side effects of her medication. A Zen centre that belonged to Alan Watts and Suzuki Roshi provided them with comfortable lodging in Mill Valley, California. In exchange for this assistance, Lama Govinda gave lectures in the Zen centre. The couple became permanent residents of the United States and were eligible for government health benefits. However, their medical bills continued to mount. Fortunately for them, their friends were willing to come to their rescue and provided them with financial assistance.

During their stay in Mill Valley, they were cared for by a nurse and a friend, Yvonne Rand, who visited them daily to take care of their needs. Although he was confined to a wheelchair in his old age, Lama Govinda’s mind was alert, and he continued to write articles for various periodicals and completed a book, The Inner Structure of the I Ching: The Book of Transformation, which he considered as his most important work.

In India, Lama Govinda established the branch of Arya Maitreya Mandala in San Francisco and called it the Home of Dhyan. His last visit to India was in 1980, when he decided to give up his house in Almora, Kasar Devi. Lama Govinda described the experience as follows:

There cannot be growth without changes. To live is not only to be, but to become… as long as we are in the process of becoming there is life and growth. The worst thing for us is the inability to change . . . as long as there is change, there is hope. But he who believes he has reached perfection has only reached a dead end, because he has ceased to strive.

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Lama Govinda and Urgyen Sangharakshita.

In his last letter to an English Buddhist friend who had previously been a travelling companion in Italy, Urgyen Sangharakshita, Lama Govinda recalled his fondness of Italian Art:

I am a great admirer of Italian art, and like you, I always uphold the importance of European culture. Without knowing the roots of our own culture, how can we absorb the essence of Buddhist culture?

Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015

Four days after he wrote this letter, on 14 January 1985, Lama Govinda had a sudden heart attack while conversing with his wife and a friend. Lama Govinda passed away peacefully. His ashes were interred in Nirvana Stupa in Samten Choeling Monastery in Darjeeling, India.

Upon his passing, the American Theosophist issued the following tribute for Lama Govinda:

In January of 1985 Lama Anagarika Govinda passed on. Lama Govinda was a long-time friend of the Society, a fine Sanskrit scholar and a wise and kind man. He was born in Germany and very early in life embraced Buddhism. He studied in many European universities, but his dedication to Buddhism led him to India where he finally joined the Tibetan Buddhist order of monks. His greatest literary achievement was Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, an outstanding contribution to Tibetan studies and beautifully written. After living for many years in the Himalayas, he and his wife Li Gotami, a wonderful photographer, spent the last few years at the Zen Center in Marin County, California. The community there looked after him and his wife with loving care. All of us who knew him respected him greatly. The Theosophical Publishing House published one of his last books, Creative Meditation and Multi-Dimensional Consciousness, a selection from which is reprinted in this issue of The American Theosophist.

http://theosophy.wiki/w-en/index.php?title=Anagarika_Govinda

After the death of her husband, Li Gotami returned to India and lived with her family until her own passing in Pune, Maharashtra on 18 August 1988.

Legacy

Lama Govinda: The Writer

Since he was very young, Lama Govinda had shown incredible intelligence and ability to understand the essentials of a complex subject. When he was 19 years old, Lama Govinda wrote his first book titled The Fundamental Thoughts of Buddhism. In his introduction to Lama Govinda’s popular book, Robert Thurman, a scholar and an American Buddhist writer, wrote that Lama Govinda was:

…undoubtedly one of the West’s greatest minds of the twentieth century, among the Pantheon that includes with Einstein, Heisenberg, Wittgenstein, Solzhenitsyn, Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama.

http://www.arya-maitreya-mandala.org/content/lamagovinda.htm

After he had returned from the Tsaparang Expedition, Lama Govinda described his experience in the book titled Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism. Among all his books, Lama Govinda considered The Inner Structure of the I Ching: The Book of Transformation that he wrote shortly before his death as his most important work.

In addition to books, Lama Govinda wrote articles for many Buddhist and Theosophy journals such as Mahabodhi, The American Theosophist, and many other journals.

Selected Books by Lama Govinda

Book Cover	Description
Click to enlarge	The Way of the White Clouds: The Classic Spiritual Travelogue by One of Tibet’s Best-known Explorers The Way of the White Clouds is a spiritual autobiography of Lama Govinda that contains information about his journey to Tibet with his wife, Li Gotami, and encounters with various Buddhist masters including his root teacher, Domo Geshe Rinpoche.
Click to enlarge	Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism The book contains information that clarifies the differences between Tibetan and Hindu Yoga and an explanation of the esoteric principles of Mantra. The book also contains illustration, index, and bibliography that would help those who are interested in getting a deeper insight about Tibetan Buddhism. At the beginning of the book, Lama Govinda stated that: “Each new experience, each new situation of life, widens our mental outlook and brings about a subtle transformation within ourselves. Thus our nature changes continually, not only on account of the conditions of life, but even if these would remain static – because by the constant addition of new impressions, the structure of our mind be- comes ever more diverse and complex, whether we call it ‘progress’ or ‘degeneration’, we have to admit the fact that it is the law of all life, in which differentiation and co-ordination balance each other.” Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015
Click to enlarge	The Inner Structure of the I Ching: The Book of Transformation The book contains an in depth philosophy of I Ching and the information of the actual structure and calculation of the Guas (hexagrams and trigrams) and assessment of the King Wen and Fu Xi sequence.
Click to enlarge	Art and Meditation This book contains the comparison between spirituality and art and their relationship with the creative process that an artist goes through to produce his/ her work. Lama Govinda also explained that for him enjoying art and producing the work of art were the acts of meditation, while meditation is an art in itself.
Click to enlarge	Psycho-cosmic Symbolism of the Buddhist Stupa The book contains information about the significance and forms of the stupa as the symbol of enlightenment. Part one contains information about the development of the stupa in Ceylon and India. Part two contains the review of the origins of the stupas and their symbolism from scholastic and archetypal perspective. The book also contains information about photographs of famous stupas, diagrams, and line drawings to facilitate the understanding of the readers.
Click to enlarge	Buddhist Reflections The book contains information about contemporary Buddhist Philosophy and insights about Tibetan and Indian Buddhist traditions regarding the nature of reality, death, rebirth, the development of consciousness, tolerance, faith, and the significance of ritual and meditative practices. In this book, Lama Govinda also includes information about Western philosophy and how it relates to eastern mysticism. The material in this book was compiled from the articles and lectures of Lama Govinda in his old age.

Books By Other Writers About Lama Govinda

Book Cover	Description
Click to enlarge	A Thousand Journeys: The Biography of Lama Anagarika Govinda By: Dr. Ken Winkler (Author) Publisher: Element Books Ltd; First Edition edition (June 1990)In this biography, Dr. Ken Winkler, a professor of English Literature at Santa Monica College, focused on the events from Lama Govinda’s childhood and his early youth in Italy, Ceylon, and India. In 2013, Dr. Ken Winkler donated his research material on Lama Govinda to the C.V. Starr East Asian Library.
Click to enlarge	The Lost Teachings of Lama Govinda: Living Wisdom from A Modern Tibetan Master By: Richard Power (Editor), Lama Surya Das (Foreword) Publisher: Quest Books (January 1, 2007)The book contains Lama Govinda’s dialogues and essays of various topics that have never been published or have not been in circulation for a long time such as: I Ching, Zen Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, Christianity, meditation, and drugs, and transpersonal psychology.

Lama Govinda: The Painter

During his lifetime and after his passing, Lama Govinda’s paintings have been shown around the world as follows:

• 1934 – Calcutta
• 1936 – Allahabad and Lucknow
• 1939 – New Delhi
• 1945 – Calcutta
• 1946 – Bombay
• 1977 – Basel and Bonn
• 1984 – Stuttgart
• 1996 – Konstanz

Several Paintings by Lama Govinda

Mosque in Kairouan, Tunesia (1926)

Brickyard of Rajagriha, India (1930)

The Colmahari (Tibet) seen from Ram Tso (1947)

Arya Maitreya Mandala

On 14 October 1933, Lama Govinda established Arya Maitreya Mandala in Darjeeling, India as per the advice of Domo Geshe Rinpoche. The objectives of Arya Maitreya Mandala are:

1. Promote practical realisation of the Dharma.
2. Assist those who sincerely seek to understand the teachings and the development of religious practices best suited to the West.
3. Develop a religious practice that is best suited to the West.

The new society was popular with spiritual seekers and intellectuals in India. The organisation headquarter was located in Darjeeling, India. In India, Lama Govinda initiated 14 people and made them members of the order.

The Arya Maitreya Mandala started to spread to other countries after Lama Govinda initiated two members, Hans-Ulrich Rieker (1920 – 1979), a German writer, and Phue-Tuê, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk in 1952. Phue-Tuê set up a branch in Eastern Asia and Hans-Ulrich Rieker set up a branch in Europe. Arya Maitreya Mandala continued to grow and establish branches in Austria, Hungary, England, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany. Two of the first European members to be initiated were Harry Pieper (1907 – 1978) and Lionel Stützer (1901 – 1991). In Asia, Arya Maitreya Mandala opened two branches in Singapore and Vietnam. Rudolf Petri, a German Buddhist monk in Vietnam who was initiated by Lama Govinda trained disciples from the United States, China, and Vietnam.

Dr. Armin Gottmann, the former Acharya of Arya Maitreya Mandala (seated in front of the altar wearing a red sweater).

As Lama Govinda gave lectures around the world and participated in the International religious conference in the 1960s and 1970s, interest in the Arya Maitreya Mandala accordingly grew. Reverend Iru Price established the branch of Arya Maitreya Mandala in the United States. Before his passing, Govinda trained Dr. Karl Heinz Gottmann (initiation name: Advayavajra) (1919 – 2007), a German physician to be his successor as head of the order (Acharya). Advayavajra became the Acharya in 1982. In 1999, following the advice of Lama Govinda, Advayavajra passed his duty as Acharya to his son, Dr. Armin Gottmann (initiation name: Asanga). In March 2015, the leadership of Arya Maitreya Mandala was passed to Volker Zotz, a scholar and philosopher.

Various Quotes from Lama Govinda:

The ultimate way of Being lies beyond all contradictory pairs of opposites with which our two-dimensional thinking mind operates.

As soon as we are successful in silencing the restless activity of the thinking mind and give a chance to intuition, the pure all embracing spirit in us will manifest effortlessly.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

The feeling of awe and sense of wonder arises from the recognition of the deep mystery that surrounds us everywhere, and this feeling deepens as our knowledge grows.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

Surely it is the right wish that draws us to the right place. Nothing of importance happens accidentally in our life.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

Our real nature is not our imaginary, limited ego. Our true nature is vast, all-comprehensive, and intangible as empty space.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

To the enlightened man… whose consciousness embraces the universe, to him the universe becomes his ‘body’, while the physical body becomes the manifestation of the universal mind. His inner vision an expression of the highest reality, and his speech an expression of eternal truth and mantric power.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

Do not keep what you have selfishly bottled up; pour it out, share it with the world.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

The faculty of continual transformation… is a profound expression of the dynamic character of the mind.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

The cloud represents the creative power of the mind, which can assume any imaginable form. It is the ideal medium of creation for the enlightened mind, which manifests itself on the plane of timeless meditative vision.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

Every individual has the potentiality to become enlightened in the course of this life or later existences.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

The forces which move the cosmos are not different from those which move the human soul.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

Religion without art is a dead system of dogmas which have no effect on life.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

The power of the creative imagination is not only merely content with observing the world as it is, accepting a given reality, but is capable of creating a new reality by transforming the inner as well as the outer world.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

The wonders of a journey consist far more of such intangible experiences and unexpected situations than of factual things and events of material reality.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

The greatest artist is one who expresses what is felt by everybody.

Lama Anagarika Govinda

List of Books and Writings by Lama Govinda

Selected Books and Writings by Lama Govinda for download:

Drugs or Meditation? Consciousness Expansion and Disintegration vs. Concentration and Spiritual Regeneration (click on the image to download in PDF form)	Lama Anagarika Govinda: Discussion of Metaphysics/ Philosophy of Anagarika Govinda & Tibetan Buddhism. All is One (Akasa, Space) & Dynamic (Prana, Motion) Lama Govinda Pictures & Quotes (click on the image to download in PDF form)
The Inner Structure of the I Ching: The Book of Transformation (click on the image to download in PDF form)	The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist Philosophy (click on the image to download in PDF form)

The Way of The White Clouds (click on the image to download in PDF form)

The texts above were sourced from legitimate book-hosting services offering these texts for free download. They are made available here for purely educational, non-commercial purposes.

List of Books by Lama Govinda:

Lama Govinda as Contributor to The American Theosophist

Lama Govinda as Contributor to Other Periodicals

More Pictures of Ghoom Monastery (or Yi Gah Cho-Ling Monastery) and the Oracle of Dungkar Monastery

The exterior of Ghoom Monastery

Prayer wheels around Ghoom Monastery

The picture of Maitreya statue taken by Lama Govinda (left) and a more recent picture of the same Maitreya statue at Ghoom Monastery (right).

Kangyur (the translated words of the Buddha) and Tengyur (the collections of commentaries of the Buddhist teachings) at Ghoom Monastery

The oracle of Dungkar Monastery who took trance of several deities including Dorje Shugden, Kache Marpo, and Namkar Barzin.

Another picture of Dungkar Monastery Oracle who took trance of a peaceful form of Dorje Shugden.

Addendum: An Account of Lama Govinda’s Experience at Yi-Gah Cho-Ling Monastery (Ghoom Monastery) and His Relationship with Domo Geshe Rinpoche

Extracted from: The Way of The White Clouds: The Classic Spiritual Travelogue By One of Tibet’s Best-Known Explorers By Lama Anagarika Govinda

Part 1: Chapter 2 – 9: Lama Govinda’s Experience at Yi Gah Cho-Ling Monastery (Ghoom Monastery) and His Relationship with Domo Geshe Rinpoche

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Part 3: Chapter 1 – 3: Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s Passing and Subsequent Rebirth

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Part 4: Chapter 7 – 8: The Oracle of Dungkar Monastery

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The text above is easily available on the internet for free download. They are not being used for any commercial purposes. They are being used for educational purposes only.

Sources of Information:

• Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part I; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015
• Kovács, Iván. Lama Govinda’s Quest for the Truth: A Summary of His Life – Part II; The Esoteric Quarterly. 2015
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anagarika_Govinda
• http://www.arya-maitreya-mandala.org/content/lamagovinda.htm
• https://www.ramdass.org/featured-teacher-lama-anagarika-govinda/
• https://www.ramdass.org/way-white-clouds-lama-anagarika-govinda/
• http://www.worldwisdom.com/public/authors/Anagarika-Govinda.aspx
• https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Tibetan-Mysticism-Anagarika-Govinda/dp/0877280649
• http://theosophy.wiki/w-en/index.php?title=Anagarika_Govinda
• http://theosophy.ph/encyclo/index.php?title=Govinda,_Lama_Anagarika
• http://www.azquotes.com/quote/545857
• http://www.surya.org/lama-govinda/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Gotami_Govinda
• http://www.arya-maitreya-mandala.org/content/artist.htm
• http://www.arya-maitreya-mandala.org/content/history.htm

For more interesting information:

• Kazi Dawa Samdup: a Pioneering Translator of Tibetan Buddhist Texts
• Professor Garma C.C. Chang -The Illustrious Pioneer
• Alexandra David-Néel
• Herbert Guenther – Master of Languages & Buddhism
• Ekai Kawaguchi – Three Years in Tibet
• Danzan Ravjaa: The Controversial Mongolian Monk
• Agvan Dorjiev: The Diplomat Monk
• John Blofeld and His Spiritual Journey
• George Roerich – Light of the Morning Star
• The Russian Princess Buddhist Nun
• In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock
• Nicholas Roerich & art (1874-1947)
• Wonderful Sri Lanka
• Bill Porter (Red Pine): The Translator of Chinese Poems and Promoter of Zen Buddhism

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