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One consequence of Hollywood attention is that Buddhism, especially the Tibetan strain, has entered mainstream America. Madison Avenue uses Buddhist lingo to sell goods, and Buddhist terminology crops up on The Simpsons and other high-profile television shows. Ads for Tibetan root beer proffer a "gently invigorating cardamom and coriander in a Tibetan adaptation of Ayurvedic herbs." Washington's Smithsonian Institution featured Tibetan culture in its folklife festival last summer. On the National Mall visitors could hear Buddhists monks chanting, watch a sand mandala being created, buy Tibetan medicines, and even join in prayer before an image of Avalokitesvara, the protector deity of Tibet.

Westerners can even be chosen as incarnations of high lamas, as has been claimed of Jewish-born Catharine Burroughs, Vancouver native Elijah Ary, and Seagal himself. Penor Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma lineage in Tibetan Buddhism, declared that Seagal was the current manifestation of Chungdrag Dorge, a renowned 17th-century teacher. Ary, born in 1972, now goes by Tenzin Sherab and is said to be the incarnation of Geshe Jatse, a sage who died in a Tibetan cave over 30 years ago. Burroughs, titled as Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, heads a large Tibetan monastery in Poolesville, Maryland. Her story is told in Martha Sherrill's The Buddha from Brooklyn.

Hilton may have been borrowing on the Tibetan Buddhist belief that there is a pure kingdom known as Shambhala. Gere told a Frontline documentary that Tibet promises "Release. Light. Happiness. I would say that the West is very young; it's very corrupt. We're not very wise. And I think we're hopeful that there is a place that is ancient and wise and open and filled with light." That Tibet has been pillaged by Communist China [see "Blood and Tears in Tibet," p. 70] has only added to Western longings for the paradise that has been lost.

The most extreme claims about Tibet as a kingdom of magic come from the writings of T. Lobsang Rampa. Claiming to be a Tibetan priest with supernatural powers, he recounted his phenomenal life story in his bestselling The Third Eye (1956), followed by Doctor from Lhasa (1959) and The Rampa Story (1960). The first volume was greeted with ridicule by Tibetan specialists, and their skepticism was confirmed when a private investigator revealed that Rampa was really Cyril Henry Hoskin, a native of Devonshire, England, who had never been to Asia. Despite the debunking, Rampa's first volume remains in print and is one of the most popular guides to Tibetan religion.

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June 11 2001, Vol. 45, No. 8