66 years after Dalai Lama fled Tibet, his hopes for return fade

There was a time not too long ago when Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was optimistic about returning to his homeland. Now, 66 years after his dramatic escape from Lhasa, Tibet, his recently published book, unambiguously critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping, only decreases any prospects of his return home.

He was barely 24-years old when he was forced to flee the 330-year-old Potala Palace, the traditional abode of the Dalai Lamas, amid threats to his life from the Chinese army.

Today, as he approaches his 90th birthday, just four months away on July 6, his ancestral home remains but a hazy memory for the leader of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of incarnate Lamas.

“On March 17, 1959, in the darkness and frozen air of the night, I slipped out of the main gate of the Norbulingka Palace disguised and wearing a chuba, an everyday layman’s form of clothing,” he writes in his new book Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle with China for My Land and My People, published by William Morrow.

Unapologetically candid

The 256-page book was released on March 11, six days before the 66th anniversary of his escape from Lhasa.

Over his years of forced exile, the Dalai Lama has remained remarkably free of rancour against the...

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