The Boy Who Understood Animals

About the Book

Tenzin, a young shepherd in Tibet, prays to the Buddha every day, and wishes he could understand the languages of animals. The Buddha tells him his wish will be granted when his compassion is aroused. One day, Tenzin is amazed to hear a mother sheep sadly telling her lamb that she will be cooked and eaten by a rich man that night. Tenzin and the sheep escape to a distant valley, where the local king soon hears about the strange boy. Using his special gift, Tenzin is able to save a beautiful princess from a deadly illness and gets a perfect reward.

About the Author

Yeshi Dorjee is a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He entered Gyudmed Tantric University in India at the age of ten, and studied there for 25 years, earning a doctorate in Buddhist philosophy. He also became an expert in Buddhist sacred arts, including thangka painting, calligraphy, sand mandalas, and butter sculpture. He has given many workshops in Tibetan Buddhist arts, as well as in meditation and mindfulness, in universities and Buddhist centers in North and South America and Europe. As a young boy he learned many Tibetan folktales, which he loves to share with others. John S. Major is a New York-based independent scholar who has written many books on East Asian history and culture, including The Three Boys and Other Buddhist Folktales from Tibet (2007), with Yeshi Dorjee.