Tetsu Saiwai,
The 14th Dalai Lama: A Manga Biography
Penguin Books, 2010.

Ages 12+

Manga biography is a great way to introduce historically significant personages that would appeal widely to certain readers, especially young adults: and Tetsu Saiwai’s manga biography The 14th Dalai Lama does just that. The 14th Dalai Lama aims to inform readers of the life of the 14th Dalai Lama from his birth until the present day. The story is a dramatic one – from its beginning in 1939 where the young boy, Llhamo Dondrub, born of a peasant family, is discovered to be the reincarnation of the former Dalai Lama, through his removal to Lhasa, where he grows up and is educated by the monks, to his eventful departure from Tibet for India in 1959.

The story is book-ended by the Dalai Lama in the present day. It starts with his recounting of the past to an audience made up of foreigners, and ends with his expression of the spiritual tenets he abides by because of who he is. It is really those spiritual values of the Dalai Lama that are an inspiration to the world; what this manga biography does, in part, is show how these values came to be formed and also tested. A good example of this is the Dalai Lama’s struggle to stay peaceful amidst the growing persecution of his people by the Chinese. Even as his loyal Tibetan advisers urge him to get ‘support from foreign governments’, he is recalcitrant, for he is utterly convinced that getting such support from the likes of the American CIA, for example, will inevitably lead to armed conflict. He chooses the way of peace, consistently and with determination, in spite of the odds and temptations to do otherwise.

Although the manga style and format of this book are fairly conventional, they are both used to good effect to tell the compelling story of a remarkable contemporary figure. While there were no particularly visually arresting moments in the book, I think the book is intended to be educational than artistically entertaining. In other words, for your average young adult reader, it will have conveyed the Dalai’s Lama’s story in a manner they can easily consume and engage with. One quibble: I hope that page numbers will be included in future editions should Penguin continue to publish more of these manga biographies. Such biographies are a welcome addition to the growing market of manga fare available in English for young adult readers.

Sally Ito
May 2011