Her father immigrated from Bessarabia. Award of the State and a brilliant student, in the mid 1950 she was given a scholarship to prestigious Lomonossov University in Moscow, where she learned Russian, Sanskrit, Hindi and Persian. She also met young Buriats and Kalmuks, minority groups from eastern Russia bordering on Mongolia - who introduced her to Tibetan Buddhism. It was in 1981 that she firstmet the Dalaï-Lama, invited toParis by Mayor Jacques Chirac. In those days, the aura of Tibet's spiritual leader did not reach much beyond the circle of people interested in Tibetan Buddhism.The meeting was a turning-point for Claude. When they met again in Geneva in 1982, Claude asked the Dalaï-Lama what he thought about the situation in Tibet. He responded by suggesting she go see for herself. She went in 1984, as soon as the Land of Snows opened its doors a crack. This was the first of a dozen trips to the Roof of the World. In 1986, Claude told the Dalaï-Lama that a publisher had proposed that she write a biography of the Holy Man. His Holiness replied: "Let's do ti together!". The result of lengthy meetings with the spiritual and political head of the Tibetans, Le Seigneur du Lotus blanc was the first in a long series of books. In all, it included no fewer than 25 works, about 15 on Tibet and 2on Buddhism, interviews with the Dalaï-Lama and many articles in support of the Tibetan cause.