Published by: World Tibet Network News ISSUE ID: 98/01/04

http://www.pathfinder.com/twep/warner_books/authors/dalai_lama/my_land_and_my_pe ople/index.html

The Original Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet

With a New Introduction by the Author and a New Foreword by Melissa Mathison Ford

Once a small boy was chosen to rule the most mysterious land on earth. Now the Dalai Lama tells his, and his country's, poignant story...

In the Himalayan city of Lhasa, the four-year-old son of a humble farmer sat on a huge, gilded throne. His childhood would be unimaginable in both its isolation and a people's adoration. His destiny would be one of immense tragedy and the awesome transformation of a man.

Written by the Dalai Lama as a young man in exile, this dignified testament re-creates the miraculous search that identified him as the reincarnated leader of his country. It paints a rare, intimate portrait of Tibetan Buddhism-a way of life that would end with a terrifying foreign invasion surpassing sanity and reason. And it reveals the evolution of a man from a gentle monk to a world leader, one struggling to this day to free his country...one able to touch our hearts with the goodness that makes him one of the most beloved men of our time.

The moment the little boy saw the Lama, he went to him...

The Lama Kewtsang Rinpoche of Sera Monastery was disguised in a cloak, but round his neck he was wearing a rosary which had belonged to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. The little boy seemed to recognize the rosary, and he asked to be given it. The Lama promised to give it to him if he could guess who he was, and the boy replied that he was Sera-aga, which meant, in the local dialect, "a lama of Sera." The Lama asked who the "master" was, and the boy gave the name of Losang. He also knew the name of the real servant, which was Amdo Kasang.

The Lama spent the whole day watching the little boy with increasing interest, until it was time for the boy to be put to bed. All the party stayed in the house for the night, and early the next morning, when they were making ready to leave, the boy got out of his bed and insisted that he wanted to go with them.

I was that boy.

"A narrative that gains in drama by the simplicity of its telling."

-New York Times Book Review

"Earnestness, greatness of heart, simplicity of soul shine from these pages."

-Kirkus Reviews An Alternate Selection of One Spirit and of Book-of-the-Month Club(r)