This week, the Time magazine cover story is on the Dalia Lama. In 1959, when he was forced to escape to India by the invading Chinese army:

"Despite the 'Lost Horizon' legend, the kingdom was never a spiritual and agrarian utopia. Nobles were strictly ranked in seven classes, with only the Dalai Lama belonging to the first. Few commoners had any sort of education.

"Modern medicine was forbidden, especially surgery, even minor ailments were fatal. The sick were typically treated with a gruel of barley meal, butter and the urine of a holy monk. Life expectancy was 36 years.

"Criminals had limbs amputated and cauterized in boiling butter. Even the wheel wasn't commonly employed, given the dearth of passable roads.

"The Dalai Lama had admitted that Tibet was 'very, very backward" iand insists he would have enacted reforms."

"Today the Dali Lami says the institution he embodies appears 'feudal' in nature. He doesn't believe any political authority should be conferred when he dies. 'On one occasion the Dalai Lama institution started,' he says. 'That means there must be one occasion when the institution is not longer relevant. Stop. No problem.'"