Tibet

At different times in its history Tibet has been renowned for pacifism and martial prowess, enlightenment and cruelty. The Dalai Lama may be the only religious leader who can inspire the devotion of agnostics. Patrick French has been fascinated by Tibet since he was a teenager. He has read its history, agitated for its freedom, and risked arrest to travel through its remote interior. His love and knowledge inform every page of this learned, literate, and impassioned book. Talking with nomads and Buddhist nuns, exiles and collaborators, French portrays a nation demoralized by a half-century of Chinese occupation and forced to depend on the patronage of Western dilettantes. He demolishes many of the myths accruing to Tibet–including those centering around the radiant figure of the Dalai Lama. Combining the best of history, travel writing, and memoir, Tibet, Tibet is a work of extraordinary power and insight.

Presents a comprehensive history of the country, from its beginnings in the seventh century, to its rise as a Buddhist empire in medieval times, to its conquest by China in 1950, and subsequent rule by the Chinese.

Eleven-year-old Tenzin hasn't seen his older brother, Pasang, in five years, so he is thrilled when Pasang unexpectedly returns to their Tibetan village late one night. Now eighteen, Pasang is an educated monk whose return from India provokes the suspicious and ever-watchful eyes of the Chinese authorities. Unbeknownst to Tenzin, Pasang has conspired with their mother to leave again--taking his younger brother with him this time, in search of a better life. At first Tenzin is thrilled to embark on such an adventure, but crushing homesickness soon sets in as the brothers eke out a meager existence begging in the unfamiliar streets of Lhasa, often narrowly dodging the police. They finally scrape together enough money to begin the most harrowing part of their journey: the physically excruciating, dangerous, and illegal trek to a new country on the other side of the Himalayan mountains, where they can be granted refugee status and begin to rebuild their lives. Along the way they suffer abuse at the hands of border police, meet fellow Tibetans from whom they draw strength, and have a chance encounter with a film crew that will change their lives.--From publisher description.

"Photographer Phil Borges introduces Tibetans as individuals rather than as an anonymous element of a remote ethnic group. His first-hand interviews and portraits illustrate how dramatic development, climate change, and the deep devotion of the people are interacting to transform Tibetan culture--for better or for worse."--Jacket.

Drawing on sources spanning the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries, Kurtis R. Schaeffer envisions the scholars and hermits, madmen and ministers, kings and queens responsible for Tibet's massive canons. He describes how Tibetan scholars edited and printed works of religion, literature, art, and science and what this indicates about the interrelation of material and cultural practices. The Tibetan book is at once the embodiment of the Buddha's voice, a principal means of education, a source of tradition and authority, an economic product, a finely crafted aesthetic object, a medium of Buddhist written culture, and a symbol of the religion itself. A meticulous study that draws on more than 150 understudied Tibetan sources, The Culture of the Book in Tibet is the first volume to trace this singular history, allowing for a greater understanding of the Tibetan plateau.

ÔSince World War II few peoples have been more badly served than the Tibetans Ñ abandoned to their fate at the hands of the Han Chinese by their so-called friends and admirers. Yet the Tibetan myth, a cultural state of mind and belief, lives on. This excellent book explains its fate and its extraordinary durability, and suggests that the myth may yet prove to have more soft power and greater longevity than the Chinese Communist Party itself Ñ a wonderfully seditious idea which should set alarms ringing in Beijing.Õ Ð Sir Richard Dearlove, KCMG, OBE, formerly Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service ÔThe West is, understandably, deeply impressed with the spiritual energy and depth of the Dalai Lama; but we have long needed a judicious and comprehensive overview of how the current indefensible situation in Tibet arose that will take us beyond vague sympathy. This book offers just such an overview, spelling out how the short-term needs of the Cold War and the tunnel-vision of pro-Taiwanese lobbyists in the USA combined with the political and moral radar of the world. It is a tragic and shameful story, told here with clarity and challenge.Õ Ð Lord Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge and former Archbishop of Canterbury ÔA brilliantly researched and written tour de force with many, sometimes surprising, insights. The authorsÕ ability to put todayÕs Tibetan tragedy into long-term perspective makes it possible to imagine a happier future for an autonomous Tibet.Õ Ð Christopher Andrew, Professor Emeritus of Modern and Contemporary History, University of Cambridge ÔA powerful and important account of the WestÕs fascination with Tibet and the hard truths of realpolitik that have shaped policy towards the country. The authors uncover the dilemma faced by the Western powers in their need to accommodate China at the expense of TibetÕs desire for independence.Õ Ð Tsering Shakya, author of The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 ÔThe most readable and insightful account of how Tibet, weak militarily, without genuine allies, and surrounded by powerful states, was frequently traduced. It is also the story of the emergence of a Tibetan myth that has become fundamental to its unique position in the world today. Anyone who wants to understand the problem that Tibet will pose for the PeopleÕs Republic of China as it progresses on its Òpeaceful riseÓ, and the continuing sympathy for Tibet in the West, must read this book.Õ Ð Hans van de Ven, Professor of Modern Chinese History, University of Cambridge ÔLezlee and Stefan Halper are unique; scholarly and possessing deep experience in high level public service, yet able to enthral the reader with a thrilling story. Tibet illuminates the adventure, mythology, violence and geopolitics of Tibet in a way never before achieved. They have unearthed new secrets through diligent research and unique access while never losing a grasp of the arc of the romantic tragedy that is the fabled ÒShangri-la.ÓÕ Ð John Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy, member of the 9/11 Commission and the author of Command of the Seas ÔThis book reshapes the way we look at Tibet. A challenging, fascinating and provocative work that anyone interested in the society and its fate should buy.Õ Ð Christopher Coker, Professor of International RelaÂtions, London School of Economics ÔThis book evokes a romantic yet informative vision of Tibet based on extensive research into the official record. Many episodes and details will be new and surprising even to veteran scholars of modern Tibetan history, let alone the general reader.Õ Ð Krishnan Srinivasan, former Indian foreign secretary TibetÕs enduring myth, animated by the tales of Himalayan adventurers, British military expeditions, and the novel, Lost Horizon, remains an inspirational fantasy, a modern morality play about the failure of brutality to subdue the human spirit. Tibet also exercises immense Ôsoft powerÕ as one of the lenses through which the world views China.' This book traces the origins and manifestations of the Tibetan myth, as propagated by Younghusband, Madame Blavatsky, Himmler, Acheson and Roosevelt. The authors discuss how, after World War II, Tibet Ñ isolated, misunderstood and with a tiny elite unschooled in politicalÐmilitary realities ÐÐ misread the diplomacy between its two giant neighbours, India and China, forlornly hoping London or Washington might intervene. The PLA sought nothing less than to deconstruct traditional Tibet, unseat the Dalai Lama and ÔabsorbÕ this vast region into the PeopleÕs Republic, and Lhasa succumbed to ChinaÕs invasion in 1950. Drawing on declassified CIA and Chinese documents, the authors reveal MaoÕs collusion with Stalin to subdue Tibet, double-dealing by Nehru, the brilliant diplomacy of Chou En-lai and how Washington see-sawed between the China lobby, who insisted there be no backing for an independent Tibet, and presidents Truman and later Eisenhower, who initiated a covert CIA programme to support the Dalai Lama and resist Chinese occupation. It is an ignoble saga with few heroes, if any, other than ordinary Tibetans.

Travel.

The violent protests in Lhasa in 2008 against Chinese rule were met by disbelief and anger on the part of Chinese citizens and state authorities, perplexed by Tibetans' apparent ingratitude for the generous provision of development. In Taming Tibet, Emily T. Yeh examines how Chinese development projects in Tibet served to consolidate state space and power. Drawing on sixteen months of ethnographic fieldwork between 2000 and 2009, Yeh traces how the transformation of the material landscape of Tibet between the 1950s and the first decade of the twenty-first century has often been enacted through the labor of Tibetans themselves. Focusing on Lhasa, Yeh shows how attempts to foster and improve Tibetan livelihoods through the expansion of markets and the subsidized building of new houses, the control over movement and space, and the education of Tibetan desires for development have worked together at different times and how they are experienced in everyday life. The master narrative of the PRC stresses generosity: the state and Han migrants selflessly provide development to the supposedly backward Tibetans, raising the living standards of the Han's "little brothers." Arguing that development is in this context a form of "indebtedness engineering," Yeh depicts development as a hegemonic project that simultaneously recruits Tibetans to participate in their own marginalization while entrapping them in gratitude to the Chinese state. The resulting transformations of the material landscape advance the project of state territorialization. Exploring the complexity of the Tibetan response to—and negotiations with—development, Taming Tibet focuses on three key aspects of China's modernization: agrarian change, Chinese migration, and urbanization. Yeh presents a wealth of ethnographic data and suggests fresh approaches that illuminate the Tibet Question.