The Dalai Lamas of Tibet

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Nestling amidst the great Himalayas, the tiny kingdom of Tibet evokes images of monasteries, meditating monks, Buddhism and, towering above them all, the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan Diaspora is perhaps the only community in the world today wherein the spiritual head also dons the mantle of political leadership.

Traversing the road backwards to the fifteenth century when Gedun Drub became the First Dalai Lama, over the centuries, the role of the Dalai Lama only grew in stature – with the Great Fifth and the Great Thirteenth, in particular, each proving to be an 'ocean of wisdom', a living testimony to the conferred upon them.

This book journeys through Tibet… the exile of the current (Fourteenth) Dalai Lama and his followers and their epic escape to seek refuge in India… the abrupt transportation of their lives from the medieval period to the twentieth century… the continuing non-violent struggle of His Holiness for Tibetan rights and his homeland… the worldwide respect and relevance accorded to the Dalai Lama's teachings….

Of sizable contemporary interest and interspersed with rare archival photographs, The Dalai Lamas of Tibet is an empathetic look at the spiritual influence that continues to guide Tibetans today.

About the author

Thubten Samphel is Additional Secretary in the Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala. Having acquired his Masters degree in journalism from Columbia University, USA, he has written extensively on Tibet for the Youth Times, The Illustrated Weekly of India, China Report, Indian Express and the Hindustan Times. After two successful stints as Editor of the Tibetan Bulletin, the official magazine of the Central Tibetan Administration, he spent five years as the Information Officer at the Tibet office in New York. He has also translated New Tibet by Tsering Dorje Gashi and My Life's Turbulent Waves by Sampho Tenzin Dhondup from Tibetan to English.

Tendar, co-author of the book, is a translator at the Department of Information and International Relations, Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala. He specialized in rural journalism from the Xavier's Institute of Social Service, Ranchi, and worked as assistant editor of Tibetan Bulletin for three years.