In 1938 a two-year-old boy was recognised through a traditional process of discovery as being the reincarnation of all previous Dalai Lamas, the spiritual rulers of Tibet. Taken away from his parents, he was brought up in Lhasa according to a monastic regimen of rigorous austerity and in almost total isolation. Aged seven he was enthroned in the 1000-room Potala palace as the supreme spiritual leader of a nation the size of Western Europe, with a population of six million. And at fifteen, he became head of state.

With Tibet under threat from the newly Communist Chinese, there followed a traumatic decade during which he became the confidant of bot Chairman Mao and Jawaharal Nehru as he tried to maintain autonomy for his people. Them in 1959, he was finally forced into exile - followed by over 100,000 destitute refugees. Since that time, in exile in the Himalayan village of Dharamsala, he has devoted himself to the plight of his people and to promoting world peace through an unwavering policy of non-violence.

Here, in his own words, he describes what it was like to grow up revered as a deity among his people, reveals his innermost feelings about his role, and discusses the mysteries of Tibetan Buddhism. He tells of secret deals struck with the CIA as Tibet continued to struggle for independence, talks freely of the many world leaders he has known, and talks of the West's malaise from his standpoint as a spiritual and temporal figure of world renown.