The spiritual leader, who escaped from Lhasa on March 17, 1959, has written a new book in which is he is unapologetically candid about the Chinese leadership.

-By Mayank Chhaya for Scroll.in

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: ...