Ever since Europeans first penetrated Tibet, the Dali Lamas have been regarded as a mystery. The present incarnation has taken off the veil of mystery, and told the simple and moving story of his life: the wise men who searched for him and identified him, the son of a humble peasent, when he was two; his enthronement when he was four; his unique boyhood and education in the Potala and Morbulingka palaces in the 'forbidden city' of Lhasa; the call to active leadership of his country against the Chinese Communist invaders when he was only sixteen; his nine years of endeavour to apply the Buddhist doctrine of non-violence to the cold war; the final desperate crisis in Lhasa, his momentous meetings with Mao Tse-tung, Chou Enlai and other Chinese leaders, and the dramatic escape on horseback to India which roused the whole world in 1959.