Tom’s first major job in Bangkok, after moving to the city from Kamphaeng Phet, the province where he was born, was as a file clerk at the Orderly Departure Program for Vietnamese refugees, which operated under the auspices of the Embassy of the United States....

Ngawang Trinley was born in a mountain farm in Provence, France. As a young child, he was enrolled in a Buddhist school there, where he also looked after cows for several years. When he was 16, he left behind his cows and went to India...