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MY LAND AND MY PEOPLE by the Dalai Lama of Tibet His Holiness

MY LAND AND MY PEOPLE

By

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Earnestness, greatness of heart, simplicity of soul shine from these pages of the Dalai Lama in what is less a memoir than a much-needed white paper on the Tibetan tragedy. Implicit almost everywhere is an eloquent protest against Western indecisiveness, United Nations and, above all, the cynical, calculated aggrandizements of the Chinese Communists. His Holiness, whose father was a mere farmer, was chosen at the age of 4 to be the spiritual and secular leader of his people. When he was 16, after Tibet had enjoyed for years complete de facto independence, Mao-tse-Tung sent his hordes rumbling across the frontier, purportedly reclaiming a part of the China homeland and thus saving the Tibetans from the spectre of ""imperialist"" forces. So began a system of ""reforms"" and expressions, leading eventually to unprecedented guerrilla warfare, since it was the Tibetan pro themselves, whom the Reds declared they were liberating, and who spontaneously revolted against their so-called benefactors. After negotiations between Peking and Lhasa proved increasingly perilous, the Dalai Lama, almost a virtual prisoner, dressed in the garb of a foot soldier, escaped into India where he remains in sanctuary to this day. Impressions of Nehru, Chou-en-Lal, Mao and other notables illuminale the terrible events, documents such as the International Commission supporting the charges of performed by the Chinese in Tibet, the Dalai Lama's UN speech and his discussion of Buddhist belief fill out a sad, surging tale. A newsworthy book.