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Freeing Tibet: 50 Years of Struggle, Resilience, and Hope
by John B. Roberts II. and Elisabeth A. Roberts
“Former Reagan strategist Roberts and journalist Elizabeth Roberts draw on unprecedented access to the Dalai Lama’s circle and U.S. government insiders to recount Tibet’s resistance movement and its unlikely allies….this book offers a clear overview of the key issues and conveys why Tibet’s situation is more urgent that ever.” –Publishers Weekly
“A treasure trove of information about Tibet’s ordeal….[an] informative take on an important aspect of Asian political history.” –Kirkus Reviews
“While this book has been expertly and technically crafted, at heart it is a passionate act of advocacy that had become, in the short months since its release, a part of the campaign committed to freeing Tibet. Read the book and, if you can, join the struggle.” –Tom Blankley, syndicated columnist
“Written in an engaging, narrative style, Freeing Tibet is the story of a culture that has been struggling to survive for half a century… Freeing Tibet is not the chronicle of a hopeless cause—au contraire. It tells how an engaged global community could liberate the Tibetans.” –Shambhala Sun
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Murder in the High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet
by Jonathan Green
Kirkus
“In clear, concise prose, the author deliberates over China’s stranglehold on Tibet, its systematic dismantling of the indigenous culture and the terror tactics employed on families… Green’s steely, factually dense analysis of this unlawful conspiracy sheds light on a perennial human-rights crisis.”
Bookseller
“A gripping take of routine murder that would have gone unreported but for the fact that a group of Western climbers were silent witnesses to the killing of a young Tibetan woman attempting to cross the border into India. Jonathan Green has travelled to the region to research the story, he’s interviewed witnesses, other refugees and even the Dalai Lama to tell this shocking and complicated story of how Chinese border guards, instructed to protect the border at any cost, will shoot to kill.”
MikeLDunham.com, May 24, 2010
“Once in a while, a book comes along that transcends its region-specific subject matter and addresses universal questions with calm moral clarity. Murder in the High Himalaya is such a book. It is a mesmerizing alpine adventure of horrifying consequences, a sober look at China’s crimes against humanity, and a reality check on the so-called heroics of Westerners who belong to the elite mountaineering community.”
Shelf Awareness, May 24, 2010
“A shattering tale that will appeal to readers of all things about Tibet, mountaineering, human rights and the preservation of cultural integrity.”
The Bookseller, April 16, 2010
“A gripping tale of routine murder that would have gone unreported but for the fact that a group of Western clumbers were silent witnesses to the killing of a young Tibetan woman attempting to cross the border into India. Jonathan Green has travelled to the region to research the story, he’s interviewed witnesses, other refugees and even the Dalai Lama to tell this shocking and complicated story of how Chinese border guards, instructed to protect the border at any cost, will shoot to kill.”
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The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama
by Melvin C. Goldstein
Just the facts, Ma’am. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could simply inspect the historical record and resolve the question of whether or not Tibet has traditionally been a part of China? Melvyn Goldstein, anthropologist and Tibet specialist, takes us in that direction in The Snow Lion and the Dragon.
The results? Not so fast. Like a scientist analyzing experimental data, Goldstein walks us through centuries of unending political struggle and battles of conquest. He shows us that Tibet first came under Chinese suzerainty during the Mongolian era and then for almost 300 years during the Manchu era. For the most part, The Snow Lion and the Dragon succeeds as chronicle of the power plays of two governments vying for control of Tibet.
But when Goldstein speaks of the Chinese government, what does he mean by “Chinese”? Does he mean the Mongols when they controlled the territory we call China and the Manchus when they did? Were these legitimate Chinese governments?
Although Goldstein is sincere in his objective methods, many questions such as these lurk behind the illusion objectivity. Ultimately, history is interpretation, and without admitting this, Goldstein lures the reader into a false sense of complacency.
The Snow Lion and the Dragon is a helpful historical summary for anyone who wonders how the Tibet Question has played itself out from the beginning up until 1997, but for an adequate examination of historical subtleties surrounding the issue, we must continue to wait. –Brian Bruya
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The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama
by Thomas Laird
Over the course of three years, journalist Thomas Laird spent more than sixty hours with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in candid, one-on-one interviews that covered history, science, reincarnation, and Buddhism. Laird brings these meetings to life in rich, vibrant, and monumental work that outlines the essence of thousands of years of civilization, myth, and spirituality. Tibet’s story is rich with tradition and filled with promise. It begins with the Bodhisattva Chenrizi (“The Holy One”) whose spirit many Tibetans believe resides within the Dalai Lama. We learn the origins of Buddhism, and about the era of Great Tibetan Emperors, whose reign stretched from southwestern China to Northern India. His Holiness introduces us to Tibet’s greatest yogis and meditation masters, and explains how the institution of the Dalai Lama was founded. Laird explores, with His Holiness, Tibet’s relations with the Mongols, the Golden Age under the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, Tibet’s years under Manchu overlords, modern independence in the early twentieth century, and the Dalai Lama’s personal meetings with Mao just before His Holiness fled into exile in 1959. The Story of Tibet is “a tenderly crafted study that is equal parts love letter, traditional history, and oral history” (Publishers Weekly).
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The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947
by Tsering Shakya
Long isolated by virtue of its remoteness and its government’s suspicion of outsiders, Tibet was drawn a century ago into an uneasy alliance with Great Britain. In the bargain, the British gained a buffer state between its Indian colonies and China, while the Tibetans gained some measure of protection against Chinese encroachment. With the end in 1947 of British rule in India, Tibet was left defenseless, and China lost no time in claiming Tibet as its own, invading the mountainous kingdom in 1949. China has ruled Tibet as a colony ever since, settling ever larger numbers of ethnic Chinese there in order to establish a majority over the original occupants.
Thanks to the decades-long efforts of the exiled Dalai Lama, the Tibetan demand for sovereignty is well known throughout the world today. Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the complex political relationships that obtain between China and Tibet, and between both countries and the rest of the world, now have a thoroughly documented, accessible guide in Tsering Shakya’s Dragon in the Land of Snows. Though far from nonpartisan–Shakya, too, pleads the cause of Tibetan independence–the book covers much unfamiliar ground while attempting to understand China’s persistent claims of rule. China is unlikely to give up Tibet willingly, he concludes, for to do so would entail loss of face for the nationalists who now rule in Beijing.
No other book offers as comprehensive a picture of modern Tibetan history, and Shakya’s work contributes much to the debate over that sad nation’s future. –Gregory McName
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Seven Years in Tibet
by Heinrich Harrer
Originally published in 1953, this adventure classic recounts Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer’s 1943 escape from a British internment camp in India, his daring trek across the Himalayas, and his happy sojourn in Tibet, then, as now, a remote land little visited by foreigners. Warmly welcomed, he eventually became tutor to the Dalai Lama, teenaged god-king of the theocratic nation. The author’s vivid descriptions of Tibetan rites and customs capture its unique traditions before the Chinese invasion in 1950, which prompted Harrer’s departure. A 1996 epilogue details the genocidal havoc wrought over the past half-century. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
“One of the grandest and most incredible adventure stories I have ever read.”
-Santha Rama Rau, The New York Times Book Review
“First there is the incredibly adventurous twenty-onemonth trek across rugged mountain and desolate plain to the mysterious heartland of Tibet; then the fascinating picture, rich in amazing detail, of life in Lhasa. . . . Final chapters draw an intimate portrait of the youthful Dalai Lama.”
-The Atlantic Monthly
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