Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama

by TheDalaiLama (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1991

  $4.29

• Used

  Paperback
  1998

  $3.35

  In 1938 a two year old boy was recognised through a traditional process of discovery as being the reincarnation of all previous Dalai Lamas, the spiritual rulers of Tibet. Taken away from his parents, he was brought up in Lhasa according to a monastic regimen of rigorous austerity and in almost total isolation. Aged seven he was enthroned in the 1000-room Potala palace as the supreme spiritual leader of a nation the size of Western Europe, with population of six million. And at fifteen, he became head of state. With Tibet under threat from the newly Communist Chinese, there followed a traumatic decade during which he became the confidant of both Chairman Mao and Jawaharal Nehru as he tried to maintain autonomy for his people. Then in 1959, he was finally forced into exile - followed by over 100,000 destitute refugees. Here, in his own words, he describes what it was like to grow up revered as a deity among his people, reveals his innermost feelings about his role, and discusses the mysteries of Tibetan Buddhism.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1990

  $12.30

  The award of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize to the Dalai has focused the attention of the free world on the Chinese oppression of the Tibetans in their homeland. Now, in his autobiography their leader, the 14th Dalai Lama in Tibet, describes the appalling sequence of events which led up to their suppression. In his own words he describes what it was like to grow up revered as a deity in the land of snows, how in 1959 he was forced into exile through a highly daring escape plan, how since then in the Indian Himalayan village of Dharamsala he has devoted himself to rebuilding the shattered lives of the 100,000 refugees who followed him into exile. He tells of the deals struck with the CIA, his encounters with world leaders like Mao and Nehru, and the Pope; he discusses both science and Tibetan Buddhism. His narrative is a blend of mystery and adventure, of insight and intrigue.