The author, born in Lhasa, was Tibet's secretary of finance from 1930 to 1950 and then, in exile, he was the Dalai Lama's official representative in New Delhi until 1966. Drawing on original Tibetan documents, government archives and ancient chronicles, he gives a full account of the Tibetan nation from its earliest civilization to the Chinese invasion of 1950, the mass exodus of refugees across the Himalayas and the current Chinese occupation. An essential source for students of Asian affairs.