The Open Road
Pico Iyer
Random House, Inc.
<p>One of the most acclaimed and perceptive observers of globalism and Buddhism now gives us the first serious consideration - for Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike - of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama's work and ideas as a politician, scientist, and philosopher.<br></p><p>Pico Iyer has been engaged in conversation with the Dalai Lama (a friend of his father's) for the last three decades - an ongoing exploration of his message and its effectiveness. Now, in this insightful, impassioned book, Iyer captures the paradoxes of the Dalai Lama's position: though he has brought the ideas of Tibet to world attention, Tibet itself is being remade as a Chinese province; though he was born in one of the remotest, least developed places on earth, he has become a champion of globalism and technology. He is a religious leader who warns against being needlessly distracted by religion; a Tibetan head of state who suggests that exile from Tibet can be an opportunity; an incarnation of a Tibetan god who stresses his everyday humanity.<br></p><p>Moving from Dharamsala, India - the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile - to Lhasa, Tibet, to venues in the West, where the Dalai Lama's pragmatism, rigor, and scholarship are sometimes lost on an audience yearning for mystical visions, <em>The Open Road</em> illuminates the hidden life, the transforming ideas, and the daily challenges of a global icon.<br></p></br></br></br>