The Dalai Lama describes his unusual childhood : in 1938, at age two, he was recognized through a traditional process of discovery to be the fourteenth reincarnation of the Dalai Lama; taken away from his parents, he was then brought up in Lhasa according to a monastic regimen of rigorous austerity and in almost total isolation. At fifteen, with his country under threat from the newly communist China, he was invested with full powers as head of the state of Tibet, a country the size of western Europe. Over the next traumatic decade, he became the confidant of both Chairman Mao and Jawaharlal Nehru as he tried desperately to maintain autonomy for his people. Finally, in 1959, he was forced into exile, escaping in a daring plan, to the Himalayan village of Dharamsala. Over 100,000 refugees followed. During his exile he has devoted himself to rebuilding the shattered lives of his fellow fefugees and to promoting world peace through an unwavering policy of nonviolence.

"A Cornelia & Michael Bessie book." Includes index.