Abbot Lobsang

Abbot Lobsang
Name	Lobsang
Race	Human
Age	Unknown
Occupation	Leader of the Listening Monks
Physical appearance
Residence
Death	54 times so far, as of Mort
Parents
Relatives
Children
Marital Status
Appearances
Books	Mort
Cameos

Abbot Lobsang is the leader of the Listening Monks. This Abbot should not be confused with the Abbot of the History Monks, nor with Lobsang Ludd.

He makes a minor appearance when Mort goes on Death's rounds during his training as Death's apprentice. He is the second soul Mort was ordered to collect, or, rather, reincarnate in a nearby village. For Abbot Lobsang has reincarnated 53 (well, it's 54 now) times, much as his fellow Abbot over in Oi Dong does (and other History Monks, like Shoblang, do when they do finally die). However, unlike the History Monks, he seemed unable to recall his past lives while he was alive.

During his 54th life, he had been the 88th Abbott of the Listening Monks. Presumably several of those other 88 abbots were also him in a different life. It is unknown if he has been killed again since the time of Mort.

Annotation

The reference is to T.Lobsang Rampa, who in the late 1950's and 1960's published eighteen books of autobiography and wisdom about his life as a Tibetan monk. He even carried on publishing even after he was identified as Cyril Henry Hoskins, a plumber from Devon who had never been to Tibet in his life, and who spoke only English.