For a truer, less Glass-soundtracked, take on the Dalai Lama, read Memoirs of a Tibetan Lama by Lobsang Gyatso.

Gyatso was a very down-to-earth guy and his autobiography has a surprisingly clear-eyed view on his culture and the man he worked very closely with for years.

Gyatso was violently murdered by monks belonging to a fundamentalist Tibetan cult which the Dalai Lama had asked people not to follow if they wished to attend his teachings.