c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Quick now. Name three famous religious leaders of the last 40 years.

Need a hint? One died several months ago, another recently addressed nearly a quarter million people in what may have been his last public preaching in the United States. The third will be celebrating his 70th birthday on Monday (July 6) and is the only non-Christian of the trio.

The first two are easy _ Pope John Paul II and Billy Graham _ but the third may have stumped you. It’s Lhamo Dhondruband , the 14th Dalai Lama,the latest incarnation in the 700-year history of Tibetan Buddhism, a self-exiled inspirational leader of his nation that the People’s Republic of China occupied in 1950, and a charismatic spiritual figure for many Westerners.

While there are numerous books about the late pope and the evangelist, there are fewer explorations into the life and times of the Dalai Lama. But that dearth is ended with the newly published “His Holiness the Dalai Lama: The Oral Biography” by Deborah Hart Strober and Gerald S. Strober. The Strobers have previously written oral histories of the Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan administrations and the British monarchy.

The Strobers mastered the complex technique of interviewing a large and diverse group of people about the American presidency and the British royal family. But the husband and wife writing team needed all their skills in focusing on a religious leader, neither Jewish nor Christian, who is revered as Divinity Incarnate, a leader free of sexual or financial scandal whose native language is not English.

The Strobers have created a superb volume that provides extraordinary insight into Buddhism, the mysterious nation of Tibet, China’s growing role in the world, and, of course, an intimate portrait of a celebrated religious leader. Not bad for a 282-page book.

What emerges from “His Holiness the Dalai Lama” is more than the familiar saffron-robed, bald Tibetan with the constant smile and seemingly simple message of love, compassion and respect for every human being. That’s because the Dalai Lama quickly learned the ways of the West, especially the use of the mass media, to plead his occupied nation’s case at the White House and other centers of political power.

The Strobers’ book reveals how the Dalai Lama has also been able to give hope and inspiration to a scattered Tibetan Diaspora that would have withered away without his appeal to a celebrity-driven West that rallied non-Buddhists to his cause.

Full disclosure requires me to state that my 1998 personal encounter with the Dalai Lama at Seton Hill College in Greensburg, Pa. is fully documented in the book along with a photo of that interreligious meeting.

It was an “Only in America” event: a Catholic college invited the Dalai Lama, the local bishop, an imam from neighboring Pittsburgh and myself to address an audience of more than 1,200 people. The Dalai Lama delivered a heartfelt keynote talk. He said treat people decently, be kind and compassionate, and be good to yourself. There was no religious coercion or fervent calls to convert to Buddhism.

But, surprisingly, the day’s highlight was not the Dalai Lama, but the presence of the event’s moderator: the late Fred Rogers, the beloved star of the PBS series, “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.” Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister, was mobbed for autographs by his fans as the world’s Buddhist leader smilingly looked on with a bemused gaze.

In the Strobers’ book, Episcopal Bishop William Swing of San Francisco summed up the Dalai Lama’s teaching this way: “Don’t be a second-rate Buddhist: be a first-rate Jew or a first-rate Christian … His message is not one of missionary zeal; it is a matter of great respect for the other religious traditions.”

The Dalai Lama has developed warm ties with the American Jewish community and the state of Israel. His two visits to Israel, in 1994 and 1999, solidified his relations with another disapora people that was able to reclaim and rebuild its religious homeland after 2,000 years.

During the Dalai Lama’s second visit, Yossi Sarid, an Israeli cabinet minister, and Avraham Burg, the speaker of the Knesset (Parliament), officially welcomed him to Israel. Sarid said the visits did not harm his nation’s relations with China.

Perhaps the Dalai Lama may never return to Tibet, but he takes the long view that one of his successors will achieve that goal when there is a new style of Chinese government.

In the meantime, as “His Holiness the Dalai Lama” makes clear, he is doing his job: teaching, preaching and offering hope.

MO/JL END RNS

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.)