‘The Dalai Lama’s Special Envoy’ is tale of Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari’s devotion to Tibetan cause

Tribune News Service

As the Dalai Lama’s special envoy and chief negotiator with China in the formal discussions over the status of Tibet, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari spent decades drawing attention to the plight of the Tibetan people and striving for the resolution of the Tibetan-Chinese conflict. At the outset, he says the book is neither a memoir, nor a contemporary history of Tibet or the Tibetan people’s struggle, just a recounting of events as he saw them.

It is divided into three parts — ‘Land of My Ancestors’, ‘Tibet Restored’ and ‘Thirty Years of Engagement with the PRC’. The author conducted a formal dialogue with the Chinese leadership from 2002 to 2012, after many years of quiet diplomacy. He details the fits and starts of the parties’ relationship, the successes as well as failures and highlights misperceptions, missteps and missed opportunities.

He describes the Tibetan resistance to the Chinese invasion and the tumultuous early years of the Tibetan community in exile as well as his family’s history and spiritual lineage. A reincarnated Tibetan Buddhist lama forced to flee Tibet, Gyari illuminates how his political efforts fulfilled his spiritual calling.

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