The earthly and spiritual journey of a Buddhist monk from Russia who became one of the first teachers of Tibetan Buddhism in the United States.
In 1923, as a young man, he left home and spent more than thirty years in Tibet and India, earning the Buddhist degree of geshe. He was a friend of the Dalai Lama, taught at Columbia University, lived the Buddha’s teaching in practice, and trained students who carried Buddhism into Western universities.
His students tell the story, from his monastery in New Jersey to the Dalai Lama’s teachings in Bodh Gaya, and back to the Kalmyk steppe he never saw again.