Reviews

This book gives some picture of Tibetan daily life and a few anecdotes, but because the reign of the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet has been conducted largely in exile, it is not surprising that much of his story is concerned with the tangled problem of Tibet's relationship with China over the past 40 years. One striking feature of the book is one's sense that the Dalai Lama is a fundamentally ordinary individual despite a life that--beginning with his being ``discovered'' as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of three--was always most out of the ordinary. His winning the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize will increase curiosity about this man and his world view, so perhaps more readers will explore the quiet wisdom of his philosophy and see the eloquent result of a tradition that has the abiding sense not to divorce statesmanship from true spirituality. Highly recommended.-- Mark Woodhouse, Gannett Tripp Lib., Elmira Coll., N.Y.