This book records the first time the Dalai Lama has spoken at length about the story of Tibet. Over the course of three years, journalist Thomas Laird spent more than sixty hours with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in candid, intimate interviews that covered His Holiness's beliefs about history, science, reincarnation, and Buddhism. Laird brings his meetings with the Dalai Lama to life in a vibrant historical narrative that outlines the essence of thousands of years of civilization, myth and spirituality. Laird explores with the Dalai Lama Tibet's relations with the Mongols; the Golden Age under the Great Fifth Dalai Lama; Tibet's years under Manchu overlords; the four decades of modern independence in the early half of the twentieth century; and finally the Dalai Lama's meetings with Mao-Tse Tung, just before His Holiness fled into exile in 1959. "The Story of Tibet" is the Dalai Lama's personal look at his country's past, and also a summation of a life's work as the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people.