A critical, scholastic study of the mystical lives of the extraordinary Sixth Dalai Lama (1683-1706) and the Bhutanese Nyingma master and terton Pema Lingpa (1450-1521).

The much-loved Sixth Dalai Lama was a rebel, famous for his lyrical love poetry and songs of spiritual realisation. Less well known are the sources disclosing the amazing secrets that are claimed to have surrounded both the birth and the mysterious death of this Dalai Lama. Pema Lingpa was a renowned treasure-revealer of hidden texts, or terton. By a close, academic reading of the Tibetan texts the author introduces a new and sceptical human perspective to the historical study of these two Buddhist saints.