Chögyam Trungpa (1939-1987) was one of the first Tibetans who taught his religious tradition to Westerners in Great Britain and North America. In the 1970/80s, Trungpa developed a secular path to enlightenment, which he called Shambhala Training. Complex transcultural dynamics shaped the creation of Shambhala Training as an innovative set of practices and teachings that Trungpa understood being neither Western nor Eastern. Shambhala teachings, practices, and aesthetics show indeed different cultural influences from Great Britain, Tibet, Japan, and North American counterculture. Moreover, Trungpa intended Shambhala Training to be a secular, but sacred meditation path that everyone could practice irrelevant of his religious orientation. The book argues that the transformations of Tibetan Buddhism visible in the development of Trungpa's Shambhala Training are not to be seen as a mere cultural adaptation to the Western context, but are best to be understood as a genuine innovation born out of a situation of cultural hybridity.

Dr. Katja Rakow leitet am Exzellenzcluster 'Asia and Europe in a Global Context' der Universität Heidelberg eine Nachwuchsforschergruppe.