THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF HIS HOLINESS THE FOURTEENTH DALAI LAMA – TIBETAN EDITION
One of the most revered spiritual figures of our time—His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama—tells the story of his life in this intimate, timeless, and approachable book. Now available in Tibetan, this beautiful book features luminous illustrations from world-renowned artist Rima Fujita. This simple yet powerful text combined with stunning artwork will captivate readers of all ages—and will take you on a mystical journey you won’t soon forget.
“རི་མ་ཕུ་ཇི་ཏས་བསྒྲིགས་པའི་སྙན་དེབ་འོད་སྣང་ལྡན་པའི་འགྲུལ་བཞུད་འདིས། རང་ཅག་གི་རྣམ་འདྲེན་ཆེན་པོ་༧སྤྱི་ནོར་༧གོང་ས་༧སྐྱབས་མགོན་རྒྱལ་དབང་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་བཅུ་བཞི་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྣམ་ཐར་རྣམས། རྒྱལ་བ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་གསུང་དང་ཡང་སྦྲགས་ཏེ་དེང་རབས་ཀྱི་རི་མོའི་རྣམ་པ་དང་བཅས་སྤེལ་བ་འདི་མཇལ་དུས། དེང་རབས་ཀྱི་དཔེ་ཀློག་པ་པོ་སྤྱི་དང་ཁྱད་པར་དུ་གཞོན་སྐྱེས་རྣམས་ལ། རྒྱལ་བའི་གསུང་དང་མཛད་པ་ཆེ་ཁག་རྣམས་བློ་ལ་ཝ་ལེར་ཤར་ཏེ་རྒྱལ་བའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དང་བཀའ་དྲིན་ཟླ་མེད་པ་དག་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པའི་དཔེ་དེབ་དམིགས་བསལ་ཅན་ཞིག་ཏུ་འདུག་སྙམ་པ་བྱུང་༑ དེས་ན་རྒྱལ་བའི་རྣམ་ཐར་རས་བྲིས་མ་དེང་རབས་ཀྱི་སྲོལ་དུ་བསྒྲིགས་མཁན་རི་མ་ཕུ་ཇི་ཏ་ལའང་ཆེ་བསྟོད་དང་ལེགས་སོའང་ཞུའོ། །གླང་རི་བ་ལྷ་རམས་ཐུབ་བསྟན་སྦྱིན་པས།”
—Thupten Jinpa, principal translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the author of Fearless Heart: How the Courage to be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives
Also available in English.
Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He frequently describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. Born in northeastern Tibet in 1935, he was as a toddler recognized as the incarnation of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and brought to Tibet’s capital, Lhasa. In 1950, Mao Zedong’s Communist forces made their first incursions into eastern Tibet, shortly after which the young Dalai Lama assumed the political leadership of his country. He passed his scholastic examinations with honors at the Great Prayer Festival in Lhasa in 1959, the same year Chinese forces occupied the city, forcing His Holiness to escape to India. There he set up the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, working to secure the welfare of the more than 100,000 Tibetan exiles and prevent the destruction of Tibetan culture. In his capacity as a spiritual and political leader, he has traveled to more than sixty-two countries on six continents and met with presidents, popes, and leading scientists to foster dialogue and create a better world. In recognition of his tireless work for the nonviolent liberation of Tibet, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. In 2012, he relinquished political authority in his exile government and turned it over to democratically elected representatives.
His Holiness frequently states that his life is guided by three major commitments: the promotion of basic human values or secular ethics in the interest of human happiness, the fostering of interreligious harmony, and securing the welfare of the Tibetan people, focusing on the survival of their identity, culture, and religion. As a superior scholar trained in the classical texts of the Nalanda tradition of Indian Buddhism, he is able to distill the central tenets of Buddhist philosophy in clear and inspiring language, his gift for pedagogy imbued with his infectious joy. Connecting scientists with Buddhist scholars, he helps unite contemplative and modern modes of investigation, bringing ancient tools and insights to bear on the acute problems facing the contemporary world. His efforts to foster dialogue among leaders of the world’s faiths envision a future where people of different beliefs can share the planet in harmony. Wisdom Publications is proud to be the premier publisher of the Dalai Lama’s more serious and in-depth works.
Photo of His Holiness provided by Olivier Adam.
Rima Fujita is a renowned artist who exhibits her work internationally and has published seven children’s books, including Save the Himalayas. Rima is a founder of Books for Children, an organization that creates children’s books in Tibetan and English, and has donated more than 12,000 book copies to the Tibetan refugee children in exile in order to help them preserve the unique Tibetan culture and language.
- Hardcover
- 52 pages, 7.5 x 6.5 inches
- $23.95
- ISBN 9781614298281
- eBook
- 52 pages
- $15.99
- ISBN 9781614298809
“When I first saw Rima Fujita’s Illuminated Journey, which creatively weaves the extraordinary life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama through visual images accompanied by the Dalai Lama’s own words, it immediately struck me how this beautiful book could uniquely help readers, especially young ones, to appreciate the amazing life and contributions of His Holiness. So I applaud Rima Fujita for creating what is a contemporary version of a biography in painting (རྣམ་ཐར་རས་བྲིས་མ་) on the life of the Dalai Lama.”—Thupten Jinpa, principal translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the author of Fearless Heart: How the Courage to be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives
“This publication of artist Rima Fujita’s biography about the life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Tibetan is a beautiful gift to Tibetan readers around the world. The book carries the special blessing of His Holiness’s narration in words, and Rima’s beautiful art brings the images to life. This book is a blessing and inspiration that will touch all age groups and is a must read.”—Tencho Gyatso, niece of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and interim vice president of International Campaign for Tibet
“In The Extraordinary Life of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Rima Fujita illustrates the life of His Holiness with the most exquisite drawings that ingeniously weave the story of Tibet with the boundless love, compassion, peace, and joy that His Holiness has given to the world. Narrated in child-friendly language, this book is a valuable contribution to Tibetan language and culture that must be read by every parent and child.”—Dr. Kunchok Dorjee, assistant professor of medicine and international health, Johns Hopkins University
“It makes me very happy to see such a beautifully illustrated book on the Life of the Dalai Lama written especially for young readers. Because children are so impressionable when they are young, I feel that it is the best time for them to hear the life stories of our great masters and teachers so that their young minds can be molded and inspired. I thank Rima Fujita for doing such a remarkable job in bringing His Holiness’s story to life for her young readers and hope that everyone reading this book is inspired by the extraordinary journey of the little boy named Lhamo Dhondup who was born in a Tibetan village but grew up to be beloved and renowned as His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, a global and universal icon. My heartiest congratulations and very best wishes.”—Dagmo Kalden Dunkyi Sakya
“The book,The Extraordinary Life of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is a precise and lucid introduction to the vast and profound deeds of His Holiness the Dalai Lama along with beautiful pictures. His childhood, study, experiences, teachings and kindness, world peace, reincarnation, and the four commitments, all these will reflect and greatly inspire people around the world. I congratulate Rima Fujita and Wisdom Publications for the good work.”—Dr. Arya Tsewang Gyalpo, representative, liaison office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Japan and East Asia
“The remarkable story of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is one of the most inspiring tales children of any age could hear. This beautiful book by Rima Fujita will become essential reading for Tibetan children everywhere.”—Tendor Dorjee, author and activist
“Rima Fujita’s The Extraordinary Life of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama contributes a delightful new seed to the flourishing of the Dalai Lama’s extraordinary life, remarkable leadership, and enlightened vision. The Tibetan translation is an important contribution to sustaining Tibetan language, literature, and culture.” —Dhondup T. Rekjong, Tibetan scholar and doctoral candidate at Northwestern University
