Institution called Dalai Lama

AN effort to throw light on the institution of the Dalai Lama without bombarding the reader with too much of history is made by Thubten Samphel and Tendar in the Roli Books publication The Dalai Lamas of Tibet.

With pictures galore, this effort at tracing the institution of the Dalai Lama back to its origin in the middle of the second millennium has been brought out in the form of a coffee table book.

A reverential account, the authors - Samphel is Additional Secretary in the Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala, and Tendar is a translator with the same office - show how the role of the Dalai Lama has grown in stature with the passage of time.

By virtue of being the most documented, the book devotes considerable amount of space to the current Dalai Lama from the day of his recognition as the spiritual leader of the Tibetans at the age of two. It documents the temporal and spiritual leadership he has given to his people in exile; right from the day they were abruptly plucked from their medieval existence in the Rooftop of the World and planted in modern-day Dharamsala.

The Dalai Lamas of Tibet, Thubten Samphel Tendar, Roli Books, Rs. 695.

ANITA JOSHUA

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