When an accomplished writer sets out on a well-intentioned journey to interview the Tibetan diaspora of Buddhist elders, she immediately finds herself transformed from journalist to seeker. Sandy Johnson's extensive travels take her around the world for interviews with Tibetan priests, oracles, and lay devotees that unearth the plush vitality of Tibetan Buddhism. She elicits a panoply of responses from a living treasure trove: men and women who relate their own experiences of the communist takeover of Tibet, traditional Tibetan medicine, and travels to the mythical land of Shambala. But mostly they impart wisdom, and Johnson soaks it all in with her tape recorder and transcribes it word for word. Apart from the author's occasional wide-eyed credulity, The Book of Tibetan Elders is a rewarding journey through the minds and lives of Tibet's gifts to the world.