>> what is it like there it is the essence of a place. he does that by reading or talking to people is the right people, doing research, most of all he doe that by listening and observing. is just that he does it better than most of us. for some writers the objective is to know something. to know something new, cover, and his objective is to see something coming to look at the same places we have traveled to and a few that we have not and to see them in a fresh and more nuance way.

he couldee something new on the average streets of kabul were the main street of disney world and he has done that for both. his latest book appears to represent, not a place but a man, a very special man known as a 14 dali lama. appears to represent a departure because the more the red from the open road the more i realized it is a travel book but like the best of the genre it is about to and inner journey and i think you would agree the journey is always incomplete. but this book and i am quoting from pico himself from his own eyes bright is an impassioned book and "the washington post" calls it the elegantly and intensely personal book. intimate and insightful chimes in with the los angeles times.

on this is true but they don't mention "the open road" is a darn good read it. a mix of biography, history, memoir, and travel. it is one heck of a travel book so with that lets plays introduced pico [applause] >> . >> thank you so much. that is one of the most thoughtful and eloquent and flattering introductions i have ever had. i will be cherished to be likened to mahatma gandhi and tiger woods in the same paragraph. it is what i feel that most of my books are not a travel book which this one does not seem to be is a travel book. thank you so much. you can all understand how

honored and throw them to be introduced by eric. we have many things in common i / and, japan, india, and besides a travel book pages and like most o you i have been listening to him and reading him four more years than i can count. these days, when we think about happiness or travel, the first person we think about it is the dali lama but the second is probably eric. it is a great honor to have him here and very gracious of him to give up his free time to be here. i am appreciative of that. as you can tell we are thrilled with the celebrated history of peace, silence, a global vision and of course, deeponcern about china and tibet.

this small evening has been more than a decade in the making so i appreciate the everybody's help for making it happen. left to my and devices i just wanted to talk over there with eric. said to get out the hard for the essence of certain questions whether there is better in the and voodoo japan are japanese food in india and i want to see the language and travel the world with him. but i have been asked to talk to first we were sitting on our way over here is somebody gets up to a podium and starts speaking everybody falls asleep including the person doing the speaking but if you fall asleep you will soon wake up. thank you very much for coming out on a rainy evening.

alice syncing as i was coming down here pass the formidable institutions and embassies that when i was two years old i did not know or care much about world events but amazingly there was one defense and that reay stuck inside my mind, even my intimacy. there was a story of the yng king it fleeing over the highest mountains in the world to get to safety. and these were the last-- before television. my parents and i wereiving in oxford england and we had a scratchy radio on the shelf every day at 7:00 p.m. my father would turn it on if there would be a disaster report from the bbc and one day we heard that the young king -- one day we heard that they were gaining on him and then we hea there is a

mysterious thing circling overhead and nobody knew there was a friend or foe but after 14 days we heard the young king had made his way across the border into a new life in exile. my father who was a professional philosopher and deeply interested in buddhism and other religions sale dollar back from being planned to india in order to meet the newly arrived dolly lama. the then as now was opening the door and realized in exile heat gauge in much more conversations and he could be for so he invited my father to come and see him in the temporary home in the foothills of the himalayas. and my father was deep in research and condi have said dali lama was thinking with new intensity and about condi and how to the a nonviolent

resistance so they had a long and fruitful conversation and at the end of it like any proud dad my father said what about the three year-old boy in oxford england? he took an unusual interest in the story of your flight even with his perfect gift even then for the perfect gesture found a picture of himself when he was five years old alrey on the line and thrown and send it to me through my father provide made the connection very early on and as a typical three rolled i did not know who or what the dali lama was but i only had to book of the picture to feel this is somebody not so difficult in day stiffer than myself whoever he may see find say common ground so it is a reflection of your better self. i remember vividly every now and then i would begin to feel

sorry for myself anday life is very difficult for a little boy in a country by himself than i just have to look at a five year-old already a ruler of 6 million and then if things were put into a useful perspective. i put the picture on my desk of the move to california shortlyhereafter than half a mile away from our house it disappeared even included a photograph which brought home the idea you cannot hold the photograph for cling to the stuff. but if you keep incited do the values or the possibilities, then that can happen with a stand -- withstand a forest fire or a tsunami. the second part is when was

17, i went back for the first time ever to my ancestral homeland of india to meet the grandparents and cousins and family i never had the chance to meet. my father decided the program would involve meeting the dali lama. i say with some embarrassment now i was a typical 17 year old i wanted to meet jerry garcia. [laughter] but to be a professional fossett -- philosopher and a colleague of my father was not high on my wish list. but i was 17. , so we went to the station and took the overnight train to a little town and got into a taxi for the winding for our trip the zigzagging around the but himalayas. it is a scatter of his thoughts along the hillside reed drove to the last house on the road a modest yellow cottage and rang the bell. nobody was knocking on his

store in those days. i see that some if you are from india and he will probably know that this had to is the most rainiest and monsoon the stricken town and all of india and this is the height of the monsoon season. ere was no raid that day but a very thick fog. asset was sitting in his room that has a large picture window looking at the congo river valley i could just see this thick intangible this domino houses are humans or upnews -- no sign of the real world and it is if these two false -- philosophers are sitting on top of the mountain and in my ignorance i did not know the dolly llama had already been dealing with beijing for 25 years at that point*. i could not understand most of what they said but it meant that as soon as the dolly llama made his trip to this

country than in the '80s he would, looked more often not the have fairly regularly in new york now it is in surmountle to think 1984 nobody almost knew what the dali lama was or whether he was a really -- are real human being three tibetans in me which usually show up on my way here i met today colleague of mine. in 1985 i set up a lunch for the dali lama two hours before they rang up the repression moth they did not want to come in on a monday to have lunch with a a month. but then they would come all that way to spend 10 minutes with him but nobody was aware what a treasure of a century old wisdom was available to them through history professor of a final part for me was

very soon after china opened tibet to the world by quickly went and i think many of you in this room have been there and you know, it is almost impossible not to be moved to just by the intensity of the elements, the sharp skies, the sharp sunlight coming in on the dusty chapel and it is hard not to be moved by the warmth and hospitality of the people who've never seen foreigners in their entire history so they were very excited in those days. and hard not to be moved by the resilience and fortitude which they were trying to sustain their country. the one final thing i will say before i leave myself then turned to the dollar, as i was traveling back and forth to tibet to, and i was a full-fledged a journalist i

had been retained 27 years. so i spend a lot of my time in difficult or we stricken places north korea, a beirut, ethiopia, yemen, el salvador, it is like going back and forth there is a great champion of peace, i always wondered what unusually this clear sighted man could offer to help release them from their seemingly intractable cycle of violence? at this point*, i should say that i am not a buddhist, i do not speak to bed so i cannot follow the abbate day storex wamu when he is that his most articulate and forceful and i would not presume to talk brought himonastic life but within the struck me on like of course, in a dialogue in history he spends a lotf time in a room like this that the naonal cathedral and

talks to people like us who may have no interest in buddhism but no interest in ever acquiring and knowledge of buddhism. it is almost a doctor of the mind and almost like a doctor he sits on a far intricate and technical body of knowledge but yet to like any doctor he is to suppress that knowledge into precepts in a way that any human can follow orot follow proper as you know, whenever he travels to replace like washington he says this is what i found to be useful, if it works, a great did not throw out and turn to another doctor in. what i began to find is ny of the precepts it would shed of bit of light of my own life for anyone's life. china and tibet will always be neighbor's son anything that helps china will help tibet

and anything harm's tibet will harm china. they are intertwined predestinate program so when i go back to my home in california, last say i my absence a neighbor has flown a stone through my window? test is about to fling it back if i stop for even one sick and the minute i throw the stock willake my neighbors lifo lot worse although that is my intention but i will also likely enrage and alienate the entire neighborhood and most of all i will make my own life for the next few years misery i will set into notion and lawsuits so if i only think of my own well being the most sensible thing is to put down the storm. my hair the dali lama speak to hear the unhappiness and suffering and this is eric expertise, those are different

things. suffering is a fabric of lif every meeting ends of a separation of every life ends in death we will all go ied -- disease and skness ideally. but unhappiness is just a position we choose or not choose to bng to it by you change the world by changin the way you look at the world. there is nothing good or bad. so suffering is by no means a necessary cost of unhappiness. also for example, all the creatures in the world will not be worth anything if people are still jealous or territorial or have the defenses and cyber threat the end of this session if i sign a treaty with the terms of friendship with eric then i suddenly remember his book was a huge best seller and he lives in washington d.c. and i feel jealous of the agreement

is not worth anything. of the new british house substances if each of us fully work toward a more inclusive and spacious vision of ourselves bid if tt is the case we dg not need a treaty. eric said he thought i was interested in the us cents and that is h why would describe the dali lama. i read in london that they found in northern ireland two men and a little hut to construct a half a ton bomb when this was presented to the police department one senior officer said very wisely, there is no way you can decommissioned shovels you have to decommission the mine. that is what the dalai lama is doing to propagate revolution by going to the root of things and make the change there. and i should probably say i

hesitate to say i have met a lot of politicians and to my surprise i notice the dolly llama was the single most realistic politician i have never match. s.a. hyper realist some the politicians talk about the future which is a never never land and some talk about the past which cannot be change. he is one of the only ones i know that is almost like a scientist looking through the microscope to see what is and then what can be done with it. at the beginning of this centy your traveler's you felt as i did the world had never been more polarized. what i noticed with a terrist attacks in new york city than on the other side of the world th more people than ever before seem to be horrified by what was being ne in the name of religion at the same te because of all the suffering more people

than ever before were preaching out for the guidance that tradition provides. i thought this might be an interesting moment for this religious leader tells people not to get distracted by religion but when he comes to washington tell people study within your own a tradition where there is the least danger. and the buddhist also who delivers lectures to the christians and to spending time with scientist many of whom may be extremely hard and a fiesta. but hooley says religions are to make provisions a let's go to the human reality where we have more in common than a

part. one of the most unusual things of the dali lama is he has so many roles he is the defect had a state, the head of tibetan ddhism and a lifelong blanc and a scientist and a regular guy. when you travel with him as i do every year you see him moving at lightning speed between these different roles. he will have a meeting with bonks and deliver a philosophical discourse that i don't think anybody could follow it then hit the he will be down on a four year-old global and know how this say something useful to her then he will give in to a car than ago across town and deal with the head of state with the most difficult matters with tibet and china but what struck me more interesng is he is pushing these rules together to see how each one

can lightp oriberate the others by which i mean he is the lead politician i know of for political leader who was a monk and brings to the device of world of politics they are a much morehortsighted vision but the amount who adheres to scientific principles and the new research sees a buddhist precepts to be out of date and science always trumps fades and he has done that and his own life. so all swells that represent the moon and the son he says we know that is not the case. and i think the other part of his example for many people and including me is really he has never been a wise man sitting on a mountaintop dispensing the golden rule his entire life has been snt in

a burning house. at the age of seven he was receiving on voice from fdr with substantial request for transportation supplies across tibet at the age of 11 he was surrounded by a civil war and at the age of 15 when we were thinking of our first date, he was made full political leader and up against leaders of the world's largest nations. it has intensified his natural pragmatism and in my experience there was never abstractions or wishful solutions, he is always very mu looking at what will work and the here a now. remember once i went in to see him and you know, he said i am addicted. said what possibly could you be addicted to?

compassion? certainly. empty nest's i am sure but he said i am addicted to the bbc world service. [laughter] and every day when i do like four hours of meditation between 3:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. i have to listen to it and he said when i traveled to places like washington and cannot listen to the bbc world service he feels that something significant is missing from his day he follows the news i think almost way more closely than any journalist. that is what allows them to bring liberated and on orthodox tied to the world of politics but when i listen and i hear the war on terror or the war on terrorism is never one to be one as long as their people on the far side of the world debt willing to give up their life to attack us but

the war on terror or the war on ourselves that precipitate the attack coming back can be one at any moment. one stone at a time that any person can begin to transform thr heart whenever they choose. i hear him say is essentially so many politicians are wondering whether to paint the bustle of society red or blue he says rewired the engine that does not matter what color it is. you may know cha opened the high-speed train linking of the city's ahead of schedule and most tibetans were open arms and saying this is the last nail in the coffin this is the way for beijing to flood to bed and make us a minority in our own country and many people in china said it is exactly the opposite. this is our way to bring great blessings to bring material

and modern romance to this remote and impoverished country. the dali lama was the only person said it does not matter about the train. it is not negative four positive it is neutral really thing to think about is the motivation of the people in charge o the train if they are compassionate then it will be one of the greatest blessings that people have never enjoyed an affair with less than it becomes unforgivable. but let's not talk about the train. that is there and let's put it to goouse price oppose, to see on a moment by moment basis he is not living prinples but speaking to certain principles he is trying to share. couple of years ago i was in russia and in japan and we were climbing a steep slope of

to a tibetan lead temple suddenly a young woman stepped forward and said dalai lama i have to talk to you and of course, they spirited her away the we continue to climb and then we sat in the temple quietly and as reversing there we could hear her chantey and shrieking outside. the minute he stepped foot outside he called his security to him and said please bring her to me and he stood three inches away from her and cradled her face and his hands and looked into her eyes and said i am your friend. do not worry it did not be so frightened we have more and comment that apart and we're both humans dealing with the same struggles. that was revoked a remarkable one we hear hecklers we just want to run in the opposite direction but in a very small and practical way he was

speaking for human for face-to-face contact and looking for common ground which is what he is trying to do in the macro as well as micro. >> in a global perspective i see him as one voice and a chorus the represents one of the grt possibilities of this new century we're more and more of leaders are realizing the constituency and responsibility is the entire glob we see bill gates used such determination to make money is a mess firm determination to give away. you see desmond tutu the winter of the sufferings of apartheid than set up the truth and reconciliation commission bring what he arned from that to places like northern ireland. use the on no one woman starng it is just as much

our problem and our responsibility as the kid 15 blocks away in washington d.c. that the distance has dissolved and to that extent we cannot just look at the the egypcommittee and one of the best examples, whose policy as he was running for president whose daughters go to the school it seems every situation not just as the books to this country basil brookes from ethiopia, kenya and hawaii and every point* and was telling all of us we were losers if we saw the person on the other side of the street as an enemy. and those are the type of things, a county board dalai lama were talking about brian very eager to get to the and the dialogue so for most of us in this room, when we hear or

think about the dalai lama we see a beaming face looking down at us or the person who is on the nabors computer as a screen saver i think he is used more than any living being. and it is easy to forgethat 98% of his life and mission is concerned with his people in tibet and in exile and in india. so i spend three recent springs being across the road fr him going to see him but also to talk to the increasingly impatient tibetan with voices we have heard more and more of in the last 18 mont raising that complete the understandable human cry which is how can we be asked to pcte forbearance and nonviolence when the country

is raised of the parents are present and our friends are killed? he hears that cry as painfully as anyone but remembers his first mission is to protect the tibetans and chinese from further suffering. and as i watched i began to feel unexpectedly i did not know that much of his life but what he did his exile community he's enjoying achievements for people and never live lower than 13,000 feet to next to nothing about th outside world who spoke no english that even around the world the economist calls the tibetans the most far and away successful refugee community on the planet. the one thing i found out when i was researching my book, the

very first words of dolly llama said when he completed that listening to that little boy over to his younger brother and he turned around and heaid now we are free. quite amazing words. he had lost his country, he lost the people he was born to rule and his destiny by he was seeing a loss ass opportunity and realizing he could now do many things in exile that would be next to impossible he could offer new opportunities to women and bring science and into the curriculum and rescue to bed with centuries-old isolation and most important, he could bring democry to his people for the first tis of his first year in exile around the time when he was meeting my father, he was trying up a constitution for the first time allowing for the dolly

llama impeachment now he set up democratically elected government which is why he says he is semi retired because no political authority is the prime minister and not with him. his first priority is to ensure that his people would have a lasting home in the world until they could return to tibet. when he was really a offering a much larger lesson because this i the age of the exile there are 200 million displaced people across the globe and many people in this room are living in homes very different from the ones that they grew up in and countries very far from what they grope and dolly llama is addressing the palestinians and the kurds and other global nomads and telling us even though you lobster common soil even if you keep your comment foundations or vues you have not lost anying at all. as well a kurdish

culture, language, tradition relies with the people of the most important pt of the culture is still flourishing. but it is a very difficult job to try to protect 6illion people he has not seen in 50 years and rally tibetans in exile most of those who have never en to but it cellpro i will endy saying and all of tibet difficult history this is the most dark a difficult time of wall. people are arrested and subject to seven years imprisonment just for calling their family here and people are sentenced to death in a close core nd many of you know, the dolly llama on the 50th anniversary of his exile in march said that tibet under chinese rule is a hell on earth. i spent the morning doing

anything with him and he said my country is going three death sentence which is the equivalent of a scare ut and one of the things he is doing is trying to ask anybody he said yesterday do not listen to the tibet 10 propaganda or me or chinese propaganda just as the outside observer tell us what is happening or give us the an objective report so for a dec -- dr. gupta not the your patient or hear the sometimes it is next to impossible to know how to tend to the patient. over andver he has been telling people if they can and many if you are in a position to visit and tell us the truth to see if they are happy or unhappy or the mixture i met him one wk ago and california and he said i don't

expect really the world to be concerned about the best or expect anyone to say and up -- std up to china which is a formidable force people are suffering all over the globand many countries even worse than to bet and that should be the first priority but it is still worth remembering that the four major nation rivers start at the source of tibet and of those rivers begin to be contaminated that affects 2 billion people also tibet stands between china and india and if it is unstable those two largest nations could come up against one another and finally he said of the world is lucky to enjoy it as they could not in my parents day to with the tibetan restaurants, culture, music and therefore something may have been lost to all of us. but now let's get to the fun

part and talk [applause] >> is there somebody that can help with the microphone? i am feeling ee bad because you have then working. >> that is okay.

>> as a writer or a journalist i am curious i read about the task of someone who everybody thinks that they no. you're not writing about some obscure politician somewhere where you can say what everyone to because who will check? but everybody has a preconceived notion of the dalai lama and we feel that we have met him. does that make it more challenging or more easier? vivica was the biggest challenge of all probably the most visible% covered by two hollywood movies and every day probably new books come out by people who are steeped in buddhism and no more about public policy my only advantage is writing from a position of near total ignorance.

but i am not a buddhist so i thought just as a regular person practicing that most task of journalism what could i see and the dollllama that perhaps somebody would not highlight? one of the reason i chose the title "the open road" it comes from d.h. lawrence writing about women and it was important to say these ideas could belong to a faraway culture and there they are. and in some ways not to domesticate him but to bring the literary i also in terms of very close reading of the words that he says. for example, he will begin his sentences and say generally therefore, that that is not there by chance. logic is exactly how the

formulates his sentences. he will sign a simple buddhist monk. >> is he being coy? >> i wonder that 20 years ago it does sound like modesty but then i found out that he says when he has dreams come in his dreams he sees himself as a monk but never s.a. dalai lama. again he is aware of a connection not a deep connection with the dolly llama institution he says anyone it anytime could strip him of the lineage or title but nobody except him self could strip him of the monastic commitment. >> every morning. in fact, he thinks of as a final exam he has been studying 68 years he is eager to take it and see how well

his preparation has fitted him. also when asked who were you he says i am a simple grid -- a simple monk those are not as simple as they seem. >> use the same ongpin at a simple monk who was not the dalai lama who has caught your eye. you are intrigued and he is a bad of a cad pushing his business card of the pretty young women that walk by use a of the simple buddhist monks quote mackey was so much more appealing than one in nothing and was free to project my hopes and accumulated retails upon him" end quote. you could be writing about the dalai lama of trying to ride about somebody who was on a pedestal is there the danger the more they learn about them or find out the more with your

dissolution you wish you left the subjects on and left the dolly llamup there on the pedestal? or do feel it is important to examine what is on the pedestal? >> it is important because his favorite verbs hour search and analyze and investigate and explore. i did have that apprehension i have known him 25 years so parts of his great power ic absolute integrityo say whatever angle you approach political, monastic argue men, he is like a tree th very deep roots and whether he goes to the ite house are talking to the monkey is forcing the same principles

with different applications. budget and within consistency i found if i was researching this book the 24 arrow sai to my father then is what he would say to us tomorrow. and part of it is to take himself off the pedestal. we may be daunted to see the leader of tibet wittheir british month he made tweak your ear but you do forget he is a leader of evidence -- eminence. >> was going to ask you about the. [laughter] >> it is very real. >> it is and it is a way to relax people and put them at these and sai am not a solemn ferocious man who knows everything brest lay in new york he was with the former president of parliament and she was asking my good

questions but over and over he said i don't know. what is the future of tibet? i don't know. i cannot tell the future he said part of my title is the although wayne sawyer have the prerogative to say i do not know many things. >> is there the danger of being intimidated? i think i would be intimidated to sit with him or interview him, are you able to challenge him? when someone's title is his holiness it may be intimidating but in the many nversations you have had heavy prober challenged him on the position? is the receptive to that? >> he likes nothing more. that is one of the joys of being an exiles long as he is in tibet they will not challenge him they do regard as the incarnation of god so its not just catholics of e pope but jesus christ their liability him and he has had trouble finding

translators because the tibetans fluid in english the responsibility of articating the words of a god is too daunting so as soon as he meets you're me he is looking to be challenged and part of his practice is debating he takes this position he wants you to take t opposite position he likes to be a close did you were to bring him here for the first time he would not make you feel intimidated because he mak you feel you're talking to me or an old friend. >> but his celebrity status a spiritual rock star to likes of which i cannot think of any other example except mother teresa who was no longer with us perhaps. you knew him before when he was a simple buddht monk for the most part. i know if i became that mous it would go to my head probably and i would be in portugal to some extent.

and it would change me do think a celebrity has changed the dalai lama? bernanke has a big advantage that he was born as a g if anything he began as a got now is the it is a mortal he began with 6 million people who would not even look at him now he is surrounded by thousands and he is seen as many different things. i had many experiences with him just before the two hollywood movies of his life came out. he said with bewilderment come as some people think of me as a celebrity ready could barely get his mind around it. and when he goes to the right house he is dressed in flip-flops' and he will tie his shoelaces and look as if the right of the natural history museumnd he will say i am nothing special.

>> he reminds me of condi he arrives and was wearing the loincloth and nothing else and the british press jumped on him and said where you dress like that we are meeting the king and he said the king is wearing enough clothing for both of us. [laughter] since your father was a scholar of upon the and you are well versed, do you see similarities of the men who adamantly believed in non-violence trying to liberate the people? or are there were differences? >> a beautiful question nobody has ked me that. if the dell amo were here he would say my first president teacher and guide it is a ghandi there is little picture of the dollar lawmen and ghandi is russia the prime

minister said all we want to do is follow the ghandi way. and he is very good is a most people as his teacher but ghandi is the teacher in the political realm. >> has he been consistent with nonviolence? >> he is because that is a fundamental boss of that is like the pope endorsing that could not happen. but he understands how the rest of us who are not monks may feel with the confrontational approach may feel. he say my policy has failed 50 years i have preached non-violence and the chinese treatment of the tibetans have only gotten harsher. >> i guess i have that in common. how does the dolly llama sent off these young tibetans crusade just that? this has not failed, it has

not worked we have to try something else not violence but maybe a more confrontational approach? what is his answer to that and is it an answer that is satisfactory to the young restless the tibetan dspora? >> his answer first is anything that you do confrontational will bring more suffering to tibet to. you may not feel the consequences for your cousins will feel the marseille and he is the one index dominos china inside and out in 19 he knows china historilly has ever been very respective to problems from outde and with a very distinguished country and proud country he says it to leave eight ghandi nonviolent march to the border to relieve a federal cause the beijing leadership to say we made a mistake? you can do about what will it

achieve? he is a realist and the chinese have no motivation to ease up on the back. the big difference between his situation and ghandi the one advantage ghandi had is the force of numbers so and 10 percent avandia went on strike it could began to unsettle theritish economy. of 100 resent thtibetans go on strike tomorrow 6 million against one .3 billion, and ll achieve nothing. one final thing that i will say asking him about his future of the first thing was not china or tibet but india we're only allowed to be here a refugee so for us to make political mischief in india like me coming to stay in your house tonight then propagating terrorist attacks in washington whereby you fall into the line of fire. >> when i was there at in the 1990's there was some tension

where heives between these indians at you described in your book, the indian shopkeepers that see the tibetans that have this appeal with young women backpackers they want to get to know the tibetan culture. [laughter] there is a bit of jealousy that the refugees come exiles are more popular and have more charisma than the indians. i did not overall recently have been back how does that stand? >> potential you are right to there will always be some attention. there have been some disruptions and fights and yes there is no weight around that. i can understand it from the indian point* of view that tibetans do have a special status and i can understand

among other minorities who may say it's a bad debt so much more press and a more famous and leader as manchuria or mongolia thathe others do not. >> you have written a lot over globalization as on of your favorite topix. i am wondering has the dalai lama with the tibetan cause been helped with forces of globalization or hindered by it? >> on the one hand you have implying all over the world, internet, at email, with the diaspora is able to stayn touch but i was thinking china seems able to resist international pressure on tibet largely because of the growing economic might where we're buying their stuff, they are buying our bonds we do not want to rock the boat and tha as a result of globalization as well so you can argue it both ways a.

>> overall in-house ben beneficial. to say they have gone global this place when my parents were growing up nobody had ever seen or met to a tibetan but now it is part of every neighborhood. not just in terms of information or intelligence although tibet is behind the black curtain reno what is going on into b in china but in terms of china and their minds when they were less mighty in the '60s or '70s nablus was standing of to china and what is the most of about part of your job and he said meeting with politicians because realistically they all want to talk to me but none of them will stand up to china and i cannot not meet with them i have to go through the motions i don't imagine they will look jeopardize just to

help this tiny country >> it is a failure? >> no he is a right that politicians are pragmatist so nobody will divide china with a country with no power already. >> the reviews of ur book have bee overwhelmingly positive but there is the occasional one but i will share 11 said he did not present the chinese version of the fence or china side of the story. do you feel theres any truth to that and you feel you were obliged to present the chinese version? >> that is a very good point* for you are right partly because much of china's criticism and celebration of what has happened in tibet is the dalai lama point* of view he is the first to say it is not perfect and to say thank you tribeca for bringing the much needed impvements to my

country so there is some truth when he says that brought about of the dark ages. when he says every tibetan was to be part of china with their economic development we're so lucky to be part of the engine. that does not mean we should lose our part but he celebrated the games and the train and the last time i was there, some of the sweetest most engaging people i met we're the chinese settlers who would be shopkeepers are taxi drivers and my heart goes out to them because they are living in a very difficult situation surrounded by people who do not want them to be there. when there were demonstrations in march the first people the dalai lama prayed for in his temple were the chinese because he felt so terrible that innocent people were the victims of the tibet 10 understandable outrage. >> i will gto questions to the audience by have two more

quick one sparc '01 is that the dalai lama met travels a lot and racks up the frequent-flier miles does the troubled economy or first class? >> i that you're going to ask whh airline. >> he travels business. >> not coach? >> no. maybe for security reasons. [laughter] >> my last question is you news of dalai lama someone before hand or you have this long relationship it sounded then you decide to write the book and you will die bid and spend a lot more time and follow him and interview him. what surprised you? or were there no surprises? is a pretty much the way i thought he was there were otr aspects ofis personality your persona that

he thought i did realize that? >> a very good question. i was more surprised by his consistency. he is never off mesge because that mrs. -- message. >> a washington politician kind of way? >> in a non washington it monk kind of way because he meditates nine hours per day and part of what that does is it makes certain things reflective brass natal as breathing. >> nine hours per day? yes. when you pick up the bottle he is instantly attending to you the day after he won the nobel prize typically he was a monsanto's going to meetings and as soon as he saw me he grabbed me by the hand and took me into a little room the first thing he did was try to find a chair. would you like to sit here would you like to set there?

it is not the he is thinking of kindness it is just instinct. he is working very impressively the thinking of other people second major. >> there is no bird to drop. >> exactly. he is so out of self-conscious he will play with his robe. >> it is very disarming i have seen him they expect him to be reverential and dissident rieti is warm and genuine and puts people at ease. >> there is no guard to drop. you frame the pitifully. -- it beautifully. >> i can see you. what is your question? >> before 1950, before the dolly lama went away from china he is a leader of tibet. what do you think of his word during that period of time? >> of course, he was only 14

years old when the chinese troops arrived. sara lee he did not have much of a chance to get a full program going. the previous dalai lama number 13 had outlined tibetan necessity to perform he sent students to a boarding school in england and set up a personal service and tried to do a l of things to bring the tibetan in the modern world he died at a relatively young age of the end the four year-old took over. he is a radical way he never got the chance to implement that. sometimes i gather he expresses a wistfulness just as he was planning to change to that he had to leave it so from the age of 15 to when he fled at the age of 24 he was really trying to do with what is going on in china. he is on the same course as now but did not have a chance

to implement. thank you for the question . . . . if there's a fifteenth dalai lama, he will be born in exile.

he said in japan the dalai lama institution out of its usefulness, it served a wonderful functn but under new circumstances they require new solutions. he never said it to me or anyone, if you want to appoint somebody from around him in the exile community, tell these people this person is extending my vision, this is him, the fifteenth dalai lama, she will not be e name of the dalai lama. the mechanism for succession. >> right here. >> i hear people talking about tibet should be separate country, do you agree with this view? >> ye the dalai lama since 1987 said save to that.

many of you know that once upon a time he spoke about that. starting in 1987 he said i want genuine and meaningful autonomy, china or beijing can control to that. if the route is i tierdependents, that should be a part of china. china gained something from this rich, ancient tradition. to that has something to gain, being part of the world's great, huge nations. >> question over here. >> china will accept this view? reports from the talks, doing a very pessimistic dalai lama --

they see a path? >> the resolution -- >> he has great faith, that five years or 15 years in beijing, china has a lot to gain. it has nothing to fear from tibet. as you remember, two of the main chinese ladies, apologize to them. he shared an interest in

buddhist affairs. the dalai lama knows there are other such people who think differently. >> the dalai lama as a successful off there in terms of sales of books. what does he do with all that money? >> you would be surprised. exceptor his collaboration with howard cutler, he is successful in the sense that so many people want to contribute. he is very scrupulous about finding his way. when i met him the day after finding a chair in which i would be comfortable, he said i want all this money, tibet and tahiti, he is listening to

advice from everybody. i advised him, some to africa, to set up a university for peace. he feels his family is a noble family and he tries not to give money for curiosity about his scrupulous. the entire audience, in santa barbara, all the money we spend. >> he does not raise money for the tibetan cause. >> he is more concerned about raising concern than raising

money. he travels for two reasons. he enjoys listening to him. nonreligious secular ethics, drawing attention to the people in tibet, he also says i anot the leader, just the voice. >> would he be less effective as a leader? twittering the world too. >> if he had time. >> he finds beating with politicians. he feels he has to do them. not to do them is in some ways collecting people. it was deadlocked.

one more question here. >> be outside pressure on china, they get the sense, how they work this issue. what is the way forward? >> am clearly in the audience of public policy, but very good question. he ss change coming incrementally. bringing information out of tibet and into china, he sees all of those not having dramatic results, ultimately working -- one striking moments, across japan with him.

as soon as he walked in, he offered to direct them, when he was finished, just to get a touch or a blessing, every single one of those was in the people's republic of china. there are 100,000 chinese practitioners on the outside, he sees change happening that way. inese individuals waking up, when the demonstrations broke out last year, the most startling thing was not the tibetans but the chinese who risk their lives in to that. from the conditions in beijing, calling oneijing to be an outside authority. i think he sees change happening

both ways. >> final question over here. >> buy and a local resident in the area. i want to thank you for your incrediblyrticulate thoughts. you have done such a beautiful job pushing for what his holiness has pushed for which is a non violent past. as a tibetan i worry about the increasing impatience among the under -- because you have an underprivileged point of view,

ordinary tibetans. >> actually in the middle. >> i am embarrassed to be talking much more than i do. just before coming here i was talking to a gentleman, he said what most of us know, it really behooves the chinese government to talk to this dalai lama. more militant, more aggressive, the other thing there is easy to forget, the dalai lama knows the chinese born near china, he spent a year in china, no other tibetan has that experience.

in terms of how you would like to see this, there are lots of people in the project, tibetans and the west, building schools, clinics, doing things that helps the chinese population, the chinese government is very grateful, doing some of the work with infrastructure. everybody benefits. he has three days visiting japan, talking to the media but goes to high school, these are the people who will be constructing the world -- that the ones we spend to, education is the foremost priority. it is doing everyone a great favor. >> thank you very much.

we have a brief portion -- it is a great book. the open road, a fun read, thank you very much. [applause] >> people will be signing books and not lobby, please join us. >> pico iyer's books include video night in kathmandu, cuba and the night, and falling off the men. this chapter of the asia society hosted the event. >> what is the best way to secure america, an inside look at the terrorist thre, his

tenure as head of homeland security and what led to his resignation, part of book tv weekend tonight on c-span2. >> lessons in leadership from e former head of satcom and middle east envoy. leaders and organizations best respond to trends reshaping the world. he discusses his book with jua. afterwards, part of c-span2's book tv weekend. a fellow of the american enterprise institute presents his second volumn the political career of president ronald reagan. steven hayward recalls president reagan's public and foreign licy decisions and the forme president's internal disputes with republican party stalwarts. the cato institute in washington d.c. hosted this event, it is 1 ho and 35 minutes. >> i direct a center for representative government at the

cato institute. today we are going to have what i think is going to be a very interesting and very fun event about a new book about ronald reagan, this book, "the age of reagan: the conservative counterrevolution, 1980-1989" -- pas dubee? excuse me. it is already fun. a new book about rald reagan, "the age of reagan: the conservative counterrevolution, 1980-1989". by steven hayward. in many ways, ronald reagan continues to inform our politics. afte the 2006 elections, just recalled one way, which happened after the 1992 election some members of congress were quick to declare the end of reaganism , the end