Reviews for Dalai Lama, My Son: A Mother's Story

The average rating for Dalai Lama, My Son: A Mother's Story based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-04-17 00:00:00 Gilbert Lozano The memoirs of the ordinary Tibetan housewife who became the Dalai Lama's mom. Diki Tsering was illiterate, but her niece tape-recorded interviews with her before her death in 1980 and those interviews became this book. I most enjoyed the first half, where Tsering talks about her childhood and early adulthood in Tibet before the Chinese invasion. Life in that time and place was very simple and had a lot of beauty, but a lot of harshness too. Tsering writes about the bad treatment of women in Tibetan society -- a daughter-in-law was basically a slave, and widows were compelled to remarry whether they wanted to or not -- and about how, of her sixteen children, nine of them did not live past infancy. Yet she clearly enjoyed her early life, surrounded by a loving family, and knowing very well her place in the world. Deprived as her existence was, she seems to have enjoyed a sense of security that the modern person's world lacks. I thought the second half of the book, about the Dalai Lama's rise to power and the family's escape to India, was much weaker. I don't know much about the Dalai Lama's life or the situation in Tibet and I couldn't understand a lot of what was going on. I think if I knew more I would have liked this part better. For this reason I would recommend this as only a supplement to learning about Tibet and the Dalai Lama. Can you imagine the bragging rights this woman must have had? Other people's sons get good grades in school or are star soccer players; her son was GOD.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-07-06 00:00:00 Kristin Jones The Dalai Lama's mother's autobiography is a treasure. What an eye-opener about her life which was incredibly difficult because that's the way it was (is) for women in Tibet. She explained how she was treated, yet wasn't complaining. How fortunate for the world that her daughter started recording her mother's oral history which was finished by the Dalai Lama's nephew after his mother's unfortunate early death. If you admire the Dalai Lama you will enjoy this look into his heritage from his mother's recollections. If you think being the mother of the Dalai Lama was easy, think again. Intrigue, suspicious deaths, fear and strangeness were rampant. What a strong woman she was. She went from extremely hard-working peasant to becoming mother of the Dalai Lama and all of its queen-like trappings and restrictions. it took only a few months before she began longing for her old home and all of the work it entailed. Her life was never the same again. I will have to say that I gave up trying to keep track of the names. Also, a few parts of the book did jump around in time. I'm guessing that's how oral history is and we are fortunate to have this inside peek into a family of one of the world's greatest men. It IS his mother's story, not that of HHDL. Perhaps the book's title is a tad misleading. But it got me to reading her story so all is good. I particularly love how she shared her heart. "As soon as I saw the city of Lhasa from a distance, there was a lump in my throat. I had heard so much about this city and had so often dreamed of it, and I now saw my dreams coming true." I particularly love this memory because I'm so hoping I'll reach Lhasa before my last breath in this life.