The Fourteenth Dalai Lama

This paper reviews the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s autobiography Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama. This autobiography was published in 1991 and details the Dalai Lama’s life up to that point. In it, he recounts his birth in 1935 in the village of Taktser in Dokham, his recognition as the 14th Dalai Lama at the age of two, his move to Lhasa in Central Tibet, the invasion and occupation of the PRC during the 1950s, his exile from Tibet into India in 1959, and his life in exile. Freedom in Exile provides a fascinating, sometimes surprisingly personal, glimpse into the life and philosophies of a self-described “simple monk” whose life has been anything but simple or ordinary.

In the forward to his autobiography Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama makes his motivations behind offering his life’s story to public consumption clear. He writes: “It is as a simple monk that I offer this story of my life, though it by no means a book about Buddhism. I have two main reasons for doing so. Firstly, an increasing number of people have shown an interest in learning something about the Dalai Lama. Secondly, there are a number of historical events about which I wish to set the record straight” (xiii). These two reasons make sense given the historical circumstances under which the Dalai Lama wrote and published Freedom in Exile in 1991. At that time, the Dalai Lama had been in exile from Chinese-controlled Tibet for almost thirty years. In those years, his crusade for the welfare of his people had garnered him international respect, the condemnation of the Chinese government, tremendous interest in his life, Tibetan Buddhism, and his people’s plight, and, in late 1989, the Nobel Peace Prize. Thus, according to the Dalai Lama himself, this book attempts to satisfy the curiosity of committed followers and casual readers and to address the claims of the Chinese government. However, this autobiography is much more than a...