The Rainbow Palace

Description

A moving, and at times harrowing memoir of spiritual resistance from the most distinguished master of traditional Tibetan medicine and the personal physician to His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. Description- 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. In 1980, following more than twenty years of torture and suffering as a political prisoner of the communist Chinese government, Dr Tenzin Choedrak left his native Tibet to live in exile in India and returned to his duties as the Dalai Lama's personal physician.Now, in his moving memoir, this eminent master of the Tibetan medical tradition gives witness to his extraordinary life.It is a life irrevocably linked to the destiny of the Tibetan people and one of the most terrible collective crimes of the twentieth century. As Dr Choedrak graphically describes his impoverished early years as a child monk, and his progress as a student doctor in Lhasa, an entire culture and the unique therapeutic practices of Tibetan medicine are vividly brought to life. Yet it is Dr Cheodrak's account of the atrocities committed by the Chinese against the Tibetan people that ultimately marks this memoir as an exceptional testimony of forbearance and hope.For, despite the incredible cruelty and squalor inflicted upon him and his fellow prisoners, Choedrak used his skill and compassion to attend to his torturers.With unbelievable courage, he also refused to abandon his Buddhist faith and the beliefs to which he has devoted his life. Through his words, as collected by Gilles Van Grasdorff, and a preface written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Choedrak's The Rainbow Palace is a profound and moving testament to the power of love and faith.

Tenzin Choedrak was born in 1922 in Tibet. He is the personal physician to the Dalai Lama and heads the Tibetan Medical Centre in Dharamsala. Here he works to preserve the extraordinary tradition of Tibetan medicine, with its unique pharmacopoeia, astrological links and Buddhist principles, which has been threatened with extinction.