By Coral Gables Gazette staff
A Tibetan Buddhist nun who has led a South Florida meditation community for nearly three decades will appear at Books & Books on Monday to discuss her first novel, a story spanning Tibet, India and the United States.
Lama Karma Chötso will discuss and sign copies of Rinpoche at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 27. The free event will be held at the bookstore’s Coral Gables location, 265 Aragon Avenue. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Published in May by Balboa Press, the 496-page novel follows a Tibetan child who survives violence and displacement before building a new life in the United States. The story explores the lasting effects of trauma as well as questions of identity, spiritual awakening, love and loss.
A longtime South Florida Buddhist teacher
Karma Chötso has been part of South Florida’s Buddhist community for nearly 30 years.
According to event materials, she began practicing in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in 1982 and was ordained as a novice nun in 1986. She later entered a traditional three-year, three-month secluded meditation retreat.
In 1996, she founded what the event listing describes as Florida’s first Kagyu Buddhist center. She and members of her sangha later built Tibetan stupas overlooking Miami’s Little River.
She also founded a Kagyu center in Lima, Peru, whose members have built a stupa in the Amazon basin, according to the listing.
Karma Chötso has taught at Buddhist centers and other venues in Florida and around the country. Her poetry collection, Dances of Dreams, was published in 2014. Rinpoche is her first novel.
A life shaped by violence and displacement
The novel follows Tenzin Rinpoche, whom the publisher describes as the incarnation of a Tibetan yogi.
His childhood in 1970s Tibet is shattered by the killing of his family amid the Chinese occupation. He escapes to India and eventually reaches the United States in the 1990s, carrying the psychological consequences of what he witnessed.
As an adult, Tenzin becomes skilled in martial arts but continues to struggle with unresolved trauma. In the United States, he meets an American photographer at a Tibetan monastery. Their relationship develops into what the publisher describes as a profound karmic connection, bringing spiritual discovery as well as heartbreak and loss.
Moving between Tibet and the West, the novel considers how childhood trauma can shape adulthood and whether spiritual practice, human connection and love can offer a path toward healing.
The historical and spiritual elements are presented through a fictional narrative rather than as a memoir or work of history.
Conversation and signing
Monday’s program is expected to include a conversation about the novel and its themes, followed by a signing. Copies of Rinpoche, priced at $30.99, will be available for purchase.
An RSVP provides general admission but does not guarantee a seat. Organizers encourage guests to arrive early and to cancel reservations they do not plan to use so that space can be made available to others.
If you go…
Rinpoche: An evening with Lama Karma Chötso
Monday, July 27 at 7 p.m.; doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Books & Books
265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables
Free and open to the public
RSVP requested
Paid parking available nearby
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