| Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is not simply a living Buddha; he is a living paradox. A Tibetan by birth, he has spent almost all his adult life in exile in India. A Buddhist by belief, he has found refuge in the very country that centuries ago had externed Buddhism from its mainland. An engineer manqué by inclination, he has subordinated his passion for everything mechanical to become a spiritual mentor and guide for millions who seek the Right Path. Acknowledged as a Bodhisattva, the crusade has conducted within himself against his own imperfections has become at an international level, a struggle against injustice and state-sponsored genocide. And as the Fourteenth of his line of reincarnations, (the first Dalai Lama dates back to 1475), he acknowledges that - the cycle of rebirth notwithstanding - he may well be the last of his line. [EXTRACT] |
| Published in DAWN Books and Authors magazine, 8 May 2005 |
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