cover image BORN IN LHASA

BORN IN LHASA

Namgyal Lhamo Taklha, BORN IN LHASANamgyal Lhamo Ta. , $14.95 (222pp) ISBN 978-1-55939-102-3

In this touching, amiable and undemanding autobiography, Namgyal Lhamo Taklha, sister-in-law of the Dalai Lama, recounts her childhood in Tibet in the 1940s before the Chinese invasion as well as her life's chapters in India, Switzerland, the United States and back to India. As a student, refugee, translator, highly placed government health-care professional and consultant in Hollywood (for Scorsese on Kundun), Taklha surely appreciates the truth that life is change, an understanding embraced by her fellow Buddhists. Likely the greatest value of this work is in its detailed portrait of the veritably irreclaimable world of Tibet before Chinese occupation: the sights, smells, rituals and landscape of a precious culture now largely lost save through captured memories such as these. Taklha does not trade deeply on her in-law status to His Holiness, and readers yearning for intimate family glimpses of the 14th and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, will be disappointed. Although he is present in this narrative, he is cherished, revered and distant. Heir to two distinguished Tibetan lineages, Taklha's story is her own, filled with the twists and turns and triumphs that few experience on this grand scale of politics, spirituality, geography and grace. (June)