The Rainbow Palace

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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.

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