The rainbow palace

Born in 1922 into a life of poverty, Tenzin Choedrak, went on to become one of the most eminent masters of the Tibetan medical tradition. But in 1980, he left his native Tibet following more than twenty years of unprecedented suffering. He chose a life of self-inflicted exile in India, where he returned to his duties as the Dalai Lama's personal physician. Today, Tenzin Choedrak gives witness to an extraordinary life - a life irrevocably linked to the destiny of a people and one of the most terrible collective crimes of this century. In this moving, often harrowing memoir, Tenzin Choedrak graphically describes his impoverished early years and his trials as a child monk in Tibet in the 1920s and 1930s. Then, as we follow his progress as a student doctor in Lhasa, an entire culture - and the unique therapeutic practice of Tibetan medicine - is vividly brought to life. Yet it is Choedrak's account of the atrocities committed by the Chinese against the Tibetan people that ultimately marks this memoir as an exceptional testimony of hope. Here we see how, despite the incredible cruelty and squalor inflicted upon him and his fellow prisoners, Choedrak used his skill and his compassion to attend to his Chinese torturers and how, with unbelievable courage and conviction, never lost the faith to which he has devoted his life. With a preface written by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, The Rainbow Palace, is an astonishing memoir of a remarkable man whose message of love and liberty is a magisterial lesson in spiritual resistance.