Lama Mani, Traditional Tibetan Story-Teller

Late Buchen Gyurmey, a Buddhist story teller who participated at the year 2000 Smithsonian Annual Folk Life festival held in Washington D.C, explains how Tibetan Buddhist story telling tradition called 'Lama Mani' came into being. Buchen Gyurmey said that a great lama called Radnabhadra or Rinchen Sangpo started this tradition in the 12th century. Lama Manis are wandering Buddhist storytellers, who tell stories based on ethical codes of conduct, explain moral concept of karma and encourage compassion for all living beings.