Journey for Peace: His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama - Photographed by Manuel Bauer

Timed to be published on the Dalai Lama's 70th birthday, this coffee table book aims to provide an intimate, behind-the-scenes portrait of His Holiness. For the most part it succeeds, although more through the photographs than the text. The introductory essay is well-written and offers engaging tidbits that devotees will relish (e.g., that His Holiness says prayers while he walks the treadmill early each morning, or that his friends wish he would suspend his heavy travel schedule to protect his health). But it sometimes veers into hagiography, fawning over its subject and presenting the Dalai Lama's words in red letters so they leap off the page. In contrast, the photographs depict a more nuanced, fragile human being and portray the spiritual leader's humility and humor. Manuel Bauer, a Swiss photographer, followed His Holiness for three years on more than 30 trips, even recording the more intimate moments of the lama's day: his early morning private meditations, the oral transmission of his teachings, or his relaxation at mealtimes or in front of the evening news. The book concludes with a helpful chronology in which events in the lives of Tibet's many Dalai Lamas are juxtaposed against world events (although the American Revolution is incorrectly listed as occurring in the 1760s).