The Dalai Lama

Based partly on personal interviews, this is the story of the Dalai Lama's prodigious life, of how a lively child from a modest peasant family came to be recognised as the fourteenth reincarnation of the Buddha of Infinite Compassion.

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Claude Levenson's search for Tenzin Gyatso, the present Dalai Lama, took her across the Himalayas, from Lhasa to his headquarters-in-exile in Dharamsala. At Dharamsala, hours of personal interviews revealed the story of his prodigious life, of how a lively child came to be recognised as the fourteenth reincarnation of the Buddha of Infinite Compassion. The book offers a vivid portrayal of an important civilization based on a sophisticated Buddhist tradition which faces extinction in Tibet. It covers the Dalai Lama's political programme of the Middle Ways which allows for a limited autonomy for Tibet. The preface brings the story up to the present day, focusing on the increase in human rights abuses in Tibet.