Mick Brown's basic story is true, well known and, despite his book's subtitle, perfectly credible. In January 2000, Gyalwa Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the spiritual leader of a major Tibetan Buddhist school, and the only supreme incarnation to be recognised by both the Dalai Lama and Beijing, escaped from Tibet into India.

The escape, over and through hundreds of miles of frozen mountains, disturbed Beijing and New Delhi. After the Karmapa had made his way to the Dalai Lama's refuge in exile in Dharamsala in north India, the Indians placed him under a three-year house arrest to subdue Chinese rage.

As is always