The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama - Pico Iyer
In The Open Road: The Global Journey Of The Fourteenth Dalai Lama (Vintage, $14.95) Pico Iyer blends spiritual teaching with a personal account of the character of the man Tenzin Gyatso. Iyer charts how political circumstances and the Dalai Lama’s own intellectual and scientific curiosity have caused him to lead once-isolated Tibet in a direction unanticipated when Gyatso was born. Iyer simultaneously debunks the mythical hype and elaborates the mystical appeal of traditional Tibetan Buddhist practice, providing a complex portrait and fascinating historical study of an internationally influential and intriguing public figure.