Customer Reviews

Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Jamie writes a beautiful account of Bhutan & it's people. And although she would like to believe that it is an ideal existence - a shangri la, she soon realises that every country has it's own unique problems. This however does not prevent Jamie from falling in love with Bhutan & the way of life. After adjusting to living with no electricity, no running water, a drastic change in diet, language problems & the local bus aptly named the 'vomit comet', Jamie's mind finally arives in Bhutan. Gradually, through letters to her boyfriend she finds a widening gap between her new life & life in Canada. So much so that on returning home for a visit, she finds her former life to be a complete culture shock & shortens her stay.

Her tales of the school children in the village of Pema Gatshel are both amusing & heartwarming. This is a society where children revere their teachers. Jamies acknoledges that that these children have taught her a lot more than she was able to teach them.

A must for anyone with an interest in Bhutan, the Himalayan region, Buddhism & teaching in a foreign country.

I purchased this book without knowing what it was going to be about, and it turned out to be one of the best books I've read. Since I know nothing about Bhutan, I found the author's descriptions fascinating and imaginative. Without knowing anything about the culture or the area, I found that I could picture both the landscape and the people of Bhutan. It is more of a personal story about a young woman's travel into an unfamiliar area and the challenges she faces along the way, in terms of her own cultural background, values, and beliefs, than a story about the Bhutan itself.

A friend of mine was in the Peace Corp and until about a year ago lived on a remote island in Micronesia. While I wrote to her often, it was hard for me to really understand what it would be like to live in a culture so different from one's own. Her correspondence revealed changing attitudes about the culture she was now a part of, her own cultural background, and the way she viewed herself. While reading this book, I felt I could better understand the feelings and attitudes my friend wrote to me about from Micronesia. I think this book would be very helpful for anyone with friends or family living or working in similar situations. I would think it would also interest people who are living overseas submersed in another culture.

As someone who has never lived or spent a great deal of time outside the United States, I felt that I could identify with the author. I appreciated her honesty and ability to convey her feelings and emotions, as well as effectively describe a place totally unfamiliar to me. I would suggest it to anyone!

I loved this book. A wonderful example of personal travel writing--a very personal memoir. In addition to beautifully describing the countryside, some of her insights were quite interesting--the lack of privacy in the culture, the obedience to authority. Her appreciation of and eventual conversion to Buddhism helped me really understand in a very different way the nature of this most un-western form of spirituality. I too was a little disappointed in the second half of the book where her falling in love interferes with the very compelling story of ethnic tensions, and I did think the ending was a bit of a cop out. Still, having been to Nepal and seeing just a glimpse of the things she writes about, I think it's a must read for people visiting that part of the world.

I found Jamie Zeppa's book, Beyond the Sky and the Earth, to be a wonderful, brilliant, human, and exciting introduction to traveling to Bhutan. It is also an insight into the mystery of how traveling changes the traveler.

I read the book before I went to Bhutan for three-months as a consultant to the Ministry of Agriculture. For the first couple of weeks, the characters in Jamie's book became even more real than they were when I was reading it. The book portrays a wonderful texture and color to Bhutan that I saw once I arrived. Her discussions about the current events relating to Bhutan during her stay provided a foundation for my own questions, observations, and research regarding these issues, particularly the troubles in southern Bhutan regarding national identity. Her book was also helpful in learning the geography of the country.

I was warmed by her personal account of how Bhutan changed her. For anyone that has traveled, you will find such an experience familiar and yet even enviable.

The book greatly enriched my experience in Bhutan.

I can say that this book is utterly honest because I was Jamie's student for two years in Bhutan (in the college). She brings out the facts without fabrication and when I read her, I can relive my experience and my adolescence even though I cannot go back.
Th Situation that Jamie talks about, for em, forms the cornerstone of the book because the situation has transformed the lives of so many Jamie knew. It was somewhat disappointing that she did not talk about it in detail but it was impossible to do so. If she had, we would not have had this book, probably. May be Jamie should come out with another book that tells the story of the people she knew while this book has told of her own experience.
Jamie, wherever you are, thanks for being honest and not taking sides while painting life as it was in Bhutan and letting so many special people and special cultural aspects live in your book. You have preserved the Bhutan that was in your book...unfortunately it no longer exists even though the government and western visitors pretend that it does. Please Keep writing.

This is a beautiful book that is at once funny, sad, informative and always honest. This book is truly a "journey into Bhutan" for both writer and reader. Zeppa's recounts her early experiences in Bhutan and the proccess of adapting to a vastly different foreign culture in a way that is both humourous and rings true. Her love story with Bhutan's landscape and its people is obvious, and her language carries the reader every step of the way. Zeppa's subsequent realization of her idealized perspective and understanding of the country's true complexity is a theme to which any overseas adventurer can relate. The book ends a bit abruptly, but overall a moving and wonderful read.

I'm sort of splitting the difference here between those who seem to think this book is flawless and those who seem to think that it is complete and utter tripe.

Positive: Bhutan is a country that is little know to the rest of the world and Zeppa's experiences were unique and worthy of sharing with others. Reading this one can definitely get the sense of a westerner going through significant periods of adjustment both in terms of routine and of being introduced to a very different culture. Those who defend this book as a memoir are correct -- a memoir is supposed to be about the authors thoughts and experiences and that's what this book is.

Negative: Once Zeppa has become adjusted to her new surroundings this memoir takes on a self righteous tone. Others have commented on Zeppa developing sexual relationships with her students and are wholly correct in calling it "unprofessional" and are also correct in how remarkably unpleasant the book gets when she treats these actions so lightly. In the west, teachers have been fired for such actions, and even gone to prison. One suspects that such actions would result in similar disciplinary action in Bhutan as Zeepa goes to great lengths not to be caught. Also correct are those critics who maintain that Zeppa is hypocritical in condemning much of western cultural values, but then using western cultural values to condemn some of the aspects of how the school where she taught in Bhutan is run. Sadly, this later part of the book makes her come across a bit like the kind of westerners who have embraced Buddhism and turned it into a religion about self absorption.

The book is certainly not without its merits. If you are interested in the Kingdom of Bhutan you'll probably want to read it because there is so little out there to read about it. I have no objections to reading about the authors thoughts and experiences, but those who dismiss concerns that some of the critics of this book have seem to not understand that this criticisms go far beyond the style of the book and are much about the content.

I just finished reading this book, and thought it was wonderful! It was especially good to read because I just recently moved to Romania and am going through some of the same experiences that the author discribed. Culture shock, language, trying to teach students without the words to communicate with them (I haven't had anyone tell me that their birthday is "It is rice and pork," yet [p. 43], but I could definitely relate to that story!), all of these are common struggles in a new land.

One of the best parts of the book for me was the way the author managed to combine a description of the history of Bhutan and her own personal experiences. I love reading history and culture books, but reading about history by experiencing it through someone else's eyes made it all come alive again. I loved how Zeppa brings the reader slowly through ever-spiraling circles deeper and deeper into the culture. The way she carefully described her arrival in the country, her original culture shock and despair, and the gradual love she gained for her new people are very well-crafted. It gives the reader the chance to experience the same gradual love of Bhutan, its culture, people, and landscape. She also managed to do so with a good sense of humor, laughing about things such as rats having a Rat Olympics while she was trying to sleep, or the reverse culture shock of having sliced bread after so many months in what originally seemed to her to be extremely spartan living conditions. I've read many travel books and memoirs, but I have to say that this is one of my all-time favorites.

I also appreciated the author's honesty, both about the good and the bad decisions she made and things she experienced. Here I have to take issue with some of the other reviewers. In fact, I have to wonder if they've ever lived in a country besides their native land (as well as wondering how they would fare with the Rat Olympics, lack of electricity, unfamiliar food, and lack of connection to their first native land). I found Zeppa's description of culture shock to be extremely accurate. As humans we have the built-in characteristic of believing on a certain fundamental level that the way we know things is "right". Living in other cultures can change that to a certain degree, but it never goes away. Some days (especially in the beginning) you wonder why you ever decided to come to this stupid country and when the next plane home is. Other days you love this wonderful new country, can't believe you ever lived anywhere else, and can't imagine why anyone would ever live life differently than people do in your new home. Most days are somewhere in-between. Through a great deal of work you can try to view both your old and new cultures objectively, but this is very hard. I felt that Zeppa did an amazing job with this; she was definitely not perfect, but she wrestled with her decisions before making them and remained constantly open to new ideas and interpretations of what she saw, which is more than most people can do. To me, this was one of this book's main strengths. I loved this book and would recommend it to people interested in learning about another culture. I would also recommend it to people who are going to be living in a new country to give them an idea of what culture shock can be like. Although most culture shock won't be as severe (Canada to Bhutan is one of the biggest cultural changes available on our planet at the moment), this is still an excellent view of what adjustment can be like. If nothing else, I know that I will remember this book so that when my culture shock gets worse ("I don't understand what she just said... This new climate is hard to get used to!... Why do they do things THAT way here?" etc.) I can know I'm in good company.

In this book, Jaime Zeppa describes her life in Bhutan. The most important thing to know about this book is that it is about a personal experience and is not a travel book. In her book, Zeppa describes the country, politics, and people of Bhutan through her own eyes and experiences. She does not write this book to be a documentary on Bhutan, it is a story on how Bhutan changed her.

Zeppa does a great job of describing the country through her experiences. After the reader finishes the book, they feel like they know the author, the people she speaks of, and the country personally. Her descriptions of the land make the book come to life. I do not normally like a lot of detailed description in novels and other books that I read, but as you read page after page she paints a very beautiful and detailed picture so that the reader is able to see it first hand. She does a wonderful job describing what the country looks like physically. Here is a piece of how she describes her home. "The strip of garden all around my house is ablaze with crimson poppies, orange gladioli, yellow dahlias, and several varieties of roses. A flowering shrub climbs up the door frame and drops tiny pink petals on my lap. Huge crows swoop and circle overhead, and a bird I cannot see sings sweetly from the gracious arms of a cherry tree." It is very easy for the reader to see the garden and the birds even if they do not know specifically what the different flowers look like. Another example is when she is describing dusk falling at her first posting. "The mist is at war with the mountains, and winning. It creeps like a disease, withering green trees, eroding ridges, diminishing the massive bulk of the mountains, turning solid rock to shadow. Everything looks long-deserted, haunted, like the last day of time."

Her descriptions of the culture and the people make the reader feel like they know what the author is going through. One example shows the reader what a cultural and language barrier she had to overcome when she arrives at her first posting. On one of the first days of class she asks one student "`[w]hen is your birthday?' He picks up his pencil and writes very carefully while the others watch. Over his shoulder [she reads], `It is rice and pork.'"

When she is transferred from an elementary school to a college, she learns that there is a lot of gossip among the other lecturers. She describes what she goes through as she is welcomed and invited into other lecturer's homes. "At Mr. Gupta's house, I am warned to keep away from Mr. Matthew, at Mr. Matthew's house, I am warned to stay clear of Mr. Bose. Mr. Bose advises me to have nothing to do with Mr. Chatterji . . ." and so on. You also learn about a great deal of the culture. When she is having tea with a student he "winces slightly when I flip a spoonful of sugar into his cup backhandedly but says nothing." After she asks him if she did anything wrong, he tells her that "in Bhutan, we never pour anything in that backward way unless someone in that household has died. That is how we serve the dead." She continues to write about the things she learns to do and not to do according to the Bhutanese culture.

I have read a few other reviews and out of the ones I read, there were two from people who did not like the book. Both reviews claimed that the author spent her time in Bhutan trying to force her own culture on her students, rather trying to accept their culture. I do not agree. Initially, she looked at the country and the culture through the eyes of a Canadian. In the first chapter of the book she admits that "except for a week on a beach in Cuba, [she] had never been anywhere." This was the main reason for applying for the posting in Bhutan. She wanted to experience another culture. She never actually thought about the fact that while Canada is a largely populated and developed country, Bhutan is a very small third world country. When she first arrives, naturally she only has her culture as a Canadian to judge Bhutan by.

If you continue to read the book you will see that, even though she has doubts about staying in Bhutan, she starts to accept the culture from the first day she arrives. She stops wearing her clothes and begins to wear a kira, which is traditional dress for Bhutanese women, even though she does not have to. As the story continues, she starts to trade in her way of life as a Canadian, and embraces the Bhutanese culture. She cooks and eats the food they do and in the end of the story she "becom[es] a Buddhist." She continues to write that she "does not see Canada as [her] home" anymore.

I really enjoyed this book and I strongly recommend it. It is easy to read, and it is very hard to put down. The language Zeppa uses is comfortable and casual. It is less like reading and more like a conversation. She is very open about her feelings and thoughts, and that enables you to trust her.

If you like to read books about other places and different cultures, and want an inside opinion rather than that of an encyclopedia, you will love this book. If you enjoy tales of love and adventure, this book will thrill you. You need to be a little open minded about different cultures, lifestyles, and religions. If you are not, this story will be a little challenging for you. If you would rather read a tourist's view point of Bhutan, you will not want to spend your time on this book.

It seems to me that there are two issues behind the negative reviews: 1) that Ms. Zeppa was "unprofessional" by having a relationship with her students, and 2) that Ms. Zeppa wrote only about herself and her experiences. I would advise the reviewers who find that these are accurate assessments to GET OUT OF THE TRAVEL ESSAY SECTION!!! Perhaps you should try to read historical compliations and political summaries to get the information you desire.

By its very nature, travel essay is a personal account. That is why they are so engrossing to most readers. Travel essayists do their best to transcribe their experience, not present political dialogues so that they can be referenced in a master's thesis. Of course, this book is written about the author - who else would she write about?

I would STRONGLY ADVISE those of you who are interested in this book to ignore the negative reviews and jump into this captivating read. What is most endearing about this book is the author's ability to see beyond herself and her own upbringing.