Dharamsala, Jan 24 (IANS) Globetrotting Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who is turning 90 in July, will be releasing a new book in March that offers insights into his decades-long dealings with China.
Already to his credit are dozens of books, including two autobiographies and works on ethics, Buddhist philosophy and practice, and the overlap between religion and science.
The Dalai Lama has rarely delved extensively into raw politics. His office on Friday said now in “Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle With China for My Land and My People”, he offers his first detailed account of his fraught negotiations with a succession of China’s leaders.
According to publisher HarperCollins, this unique book offers personal, spiritual, and historical reflections, some never shared before, the Dalai Lama tells the full story of his struggle with China to save Tibet and its people for nearly 75 years.
The Dalai Lama has had to contend with China for about his entire life. He was 16 years old when Communist China invaded Tibet in 1950, only 19 when he had his first meeting with Chairman Mao in Beijing, and 25 when he was forced to escape to India and became a leader in exile.
In the decades since, he has faced Communist China’s leaders, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping, in his efforts to protect Tibet and its people, with their distinct language, culture, religion, history, and environment, in the face of the greatest possible obstacles.
Now, almost 75 years after China’s initial invasion of Tibet, the Dalai Lama reminds the world of Tibet’s unresolved struggle for freedom and the hardship his people continue to face in their own homeland.
He offers his thoughts on the geopolitics of the region and shares how he personally was able to preserve his own humanity through the profound losses and challenges that threaten the very survival of the Tibetan people.
This book captures the Dalai Lama’s extraordinary life journey, discovering what it means to lose your home to a repressive invader and to build a life in exile; dealing with the existential crisis of a nation, its people, and its culture and religion; and envisioning the path forward.
“Voice for the Voiceless” is a powerful testimony from a global icon, who shares both his pain and his enduring hope in his people’s ongoing quest to restore dignity and freedom.
–IANS
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