The Last Lama Warrior

Book excerpt: The first book in English to reveal the principles and techniques of the Tibetan martial art of Sengueï Ngaro • Written by the last holder of the Sengueï Ngaro to receive this teaching from its last surviving master • Reveals the postures, rules, and teachings of this martial art rooted in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition Sengueï Ngaro, which means “the lion’s roar,” is a traditional martial art that was born in the Kham region of Tibet and was secretly handed down by its lineage of warrior monks from the fifteenth century until 1956, when Chinese soldiers destroyed the monastery and massacred all the monks. The superior of the monastery, Lama Bui, survived and fled to the West where he taught it to Lama Tra, the teacher of the author of this book. Today Yogi Tchouzar Pa is the keeper and guardian of this almost vanished tradition. Sengueï Ngaro consists of a series of 86 movements and 10 techniques inspired by animal behavior. It offers both a formidable art of combat and, when combined with its advanced meditation on the ultimate nature of spirituality, a means of spiritual advancement. In The Last Lama Warrior, Yogi Tchouzar Pa provides for the first time in English a fully illustrated and detailed explanation of these postures and their purpose as well as the spiritual principles and traditions on which they are founded. As Yogi Tchouzar Pa explains, “it is only by practicing the physical forms that the depth of the spiritual principles can be understood.”