Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Tibet

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I traveled to Nepal, Tibet and Thailand alone in the summer of 1998, and this book was indispensable. In fact, while staying in Kathmandu, prior to my trip to Tibet, I met someone who was contemplating a trip to Lhasa. She asked to borrow my book, and I spent a couple of worried nights awaiting the return of the book. I don't know how I could've planned my trip to Tibet nor how I could've survived successfully without this book. I bought it before the trip and read it on my way to Nepal, while in Nepal and on my way overland into Lhasa, Tibet. The book is filled with facts and helpful, necessary information. The maps are wonderful. In fact, I usually had a pretty good idea of where my driver was headed and where we actually were based on the detailed maps the book provides. I found the most important parts of the book deal with the acquisition of necessary visas and documents when traveling from Nepal to Tibet, the uncertainty of your passage from one country to the next, security and safety precautions and of course the accomodations and sites of interest. This book is small and easy to carry but it packs tons of invaluable information.

This book does what most of the Lonely Planet guides do best: provides clear, personalized reviews of places to stay, eat and explore wherever your destination may be. However, LP Tibet focuses mostly on Central Tibet and the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), with very little info and inadequate maps for what was Kham and Amdo (now contained in Sichuan and Qinghai provinces). This is where other Tibet guides, Gyurmed Dorje's Footprint edition in particular, shine. LP Tibet will get you around the TAR comfortably, but lacks the depth of information and regional exploration required for more intensive and insightful travel there.

For the most extensive discussions of religious sites (but DO NOT USE these routes and maps!), try to find the "Tibet Handbook" by Victor Chan (out of print). Also, Keith Dowman's "The Power Places of Central Tibet" provides excellent, traditional descriptions of Tibetan sacred sites.

This is probably the best Lonely Planet guide, and the best Tibetan guide ever written. I normally prefer Rough Guides, and reluctantly bought this book because Rough Guide doesn't have a Tibet guide, but it turned out to be great. It's a work of love, unlike some other guides where you can detect boredom between the lines. The authors are obviously passionate about their work, and it's amazing how they don't even miss some temples so remote that the nearest town is almost a day's drive away. The only sight I read about elsewhere but not mentioned in this book is the spooky Skull Wall in the remote Biru County, but that's unlikely to be on any foreigner's itinerary. I only wish that the book would cover more of the ethnic Tibetan areas outside the TAR, mainly Qinghai and Sichuan provinces.

Unfortunately, the authors' love for everything Tibetan often leads to a strong bias against the ethnic Chinese. They apparently bought everything produced by the exile Tibetan propaganda and perpetuate long-debunked myths such as that the Chinese army killed 1.2 million Tibetans during the invasion. They tend to associate everything bad with the Chinese, like the "Chinese" habit of spitting, even though the Tibetans spit just as much as the Chinese do, and on several occasions I saw Tibetan pilgrims urinate in the middle of the busy Barkhor circuit, which I've never seen any Chinese do during my entire stay in China. They also lament that "the importance of Chinese is an unfortunate reality in Tibet", which makes me wonder if they ever lament the importance of English in India or Hong Kong. I believe Rough Guide China's Tibet chapter offers a much more balanced view of the Sino-Tibetan relationship.

These shortcomings are just minor annoyances, and I cannot emphasize enough how helpful this book was before, during, and after my recent trip to Tibet. The places I enjoyed most are the Potala, Nam-tso (wish I had stayed overnight), and Gyantse (the dzong fort and the Kumbum). One thing I regret the most is not going to the Mount Everest base camp. When planning the trip, I worried about mountain sickness and the long drives back and forth. It turned out the drive was not that long from Shigatse, the drive itself would be quite enjoyable, and I didn't suffer much from mountain sickness at all, but it was too late to change, which brings to another major caveat: ever since the 2008 riot, all foreigners are now required to submit detailed travel plans beforehand, and it was difficult and time-consuming to change once you're in Tibet. Most annoyingly, independent travel by foreigners is no longer permitted, and foreign visitors are required to be accompanied by a guide AT ALL TIMES! Although we did sneak out of the hotel in Lhasa a few times without the guide after seeing other foreigners stroll the streets unaccompanied, but it wasn't without trepidation and not relaxing at all.

It's the best LP book ever. I bought the book a few months ago before leaving for Tibet. What a great help this book was! I read every single word one every single page! Went to so many facinating places This is THE book you must have if you plan to go to the snowland. Apparently, every independent traveller in Tibet has one. It has so many useful maps and hiking guide. I was in Tibet for two weeks, still wish I had more time there.
Best places: Lhasa, Namtso, Mt. Everest, Mt. Kalish

Best time to go: anytime
Best book to take: LP Tibet

I look for two things in guide books: narratives that enhance my understanding of the place I am visiting and accurate practical information. This review focuses on the shortcomings of the narrative and ends with comments on the practical aspects of the Lonely Planet Tibet (7th Edition).

The historical discussion of Liberation on pages 38-9 illustrates narrative problems which continue throughout the book. (The liberation section should be accessible on the amazon.com main web page for the Lonely Planet Tibet book.)

GENOCIDE: In the first paragraph of the section the author states that " `liberation' led to 1.2 million Tibetans deaths". This information first appeared in the early 1980s along with accusations of genocide. Although the 1.2 million has often been repeated on websites, in movies, print and even in the "prestigious" British War Museum in London, it has never been supported by credible evidence. No demographers, for example, have ever provided support in a peer reviewed journals. On the contrary, the census data on ethnic Tibetans in Tibet indicate an increase of 53.9% from 2.3 to 3.8 million between 1964 and 1982. This is a much higher rate of population growth and absolute numbers than the preceding 50 years. (Yan Hao, Asian Ethnicity, Volume 1, Number 1, March 2000; accessible at the Case Western University Website http://www.case.edu/affil/tibet/booksAndPapers/tibetan.population.in.china.pdf ).

CHINESE INVASION: The second paragraph of the section perpetuates the notion that Chinese military encounter with the Lhasa Tibetan Government forces was "an onslaught." While a very popular belief in the West this is does not appear to be accurate and seems to unfairly demonize the Han Chinese . The only confrontation of forces occurred at Chamdo and saw fewer than 200 casualties on the Tibetan side before surrender. The PLA treated captured Tibetan forces well, took away their weapons, made sure they had food and clothing and gave all soldiers and their families money and sent them home. ( See for example Lee Feigon, Demystifying Tibet (Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 1996), p. 144. ; Prof. A. Tom Grunfled, The Making of Modern Tibet (An East Gate Book, London, 1996), p108)

EL SALVADOR: The third paragraph contains the narrowly true but misleading story about El Salvador being the only country with courage enough to introduce a UN resolution condemning Chinese aggression against Tibet. The story is misleading because El Salvador had just completed its own very effective genocide--called La Matanza --against its Mayan citizens and was behaving as a dutiful puppet of the McCarthy era US government . La Matanza was so effective that the remaining Maya gave up their language dress and customs overnight. El Salvador was hardly a bastion of human rights courage. See the US Library of Congress Country Study on El Salvador at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+sv0017) for a discussion of La Matanza.

SINO-TIBETAN NEGOTIATIONS: The representation of the Tibetan and Chinese negotiations in the fourth paragraph is very misleading. The narrative trots out the old lie about the Chinese preparing "forged seals" to sign the agreement. The Chinese made personal seals for each of the Tibetan negotiators and no personal coercion was applied based on the testimony of the negotiators themselves. See Goldstein`s recently published, A History of Modern Tibet (University of California Press, 2008) . Goldstein's recently published History of Modern Tibet Volume 2 (2008) which has the most complete and very well documented exposition of how the negotiations went and why on pages pp 106-7.

FOOD SHORTAGE AND INFLATION: The sixth paragraph perpetuates one of the biggest myths about the "occupation" of Tibet, namely how the Chinese troops caused a food shortage and massive inflation. Actually, there were more than ample supplies of food for many times the number of PLA soldiers in Lhasa. The food market was manipulated by Tibetan aristocrats and monasteries who were the large corporate landowners and holders of grain surplus. The intent was to cause tremendous hardship for commoner Tibetans and thereby build public sentiment against the Chinese who had promised improved conditions. . The de facto Tibetan regent/prime minister Lukhangwa engineered the fake shortages strategy and reaped great personal gain. He was eventually removed from office when the Dalai Lama assumed office as the head of state. Again, Goldstein (2008) cited above has the best exposition of this whole affairs; see Chapter 9, The Food Crisis.

Note also that the author of Lonely Planet Tibet inaccurately cites Goldstein's Volume 1 of the History of Modern Tibet in the margin of this Liberation section stating that it covers the period 1913 to 1959. Actually Volume 1 covers the period up to 1951 and doesn`t deal with the Liberation period. Goldstein's Volume 2 (not cited in Lonely Planet Tibet) covers the Liberation period. I doubt the Lonely Planet author read either book.

THE CIA: The final paragraph of the Liberation narrative makes passing mention that the revolts in the late 1950s had CIA covert assistance. The truth is that US covert operations began in the 1940s through to the 1970s including funding of the Tibetan Government in Exile. This is quite common knowledge discussed in many books but again Goldstein's works are the best place to start if you are interested. Keep in mind that this is the same CIA that was overthrowing the democratically elected governments of Guatemala and Iran at this time.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECPOMMENDATIONS: The above criticisms are important for two reasons as one is about to make a large expenditure of time and money on a trip to Tibet. Tibetan culture, history and society are among the most fascinating on the planet with many unique features. It is important to look beyond the polemical perspectives and misinformation that is contained in the narrative throughout this book so that you can begin to see the richness and complexities that are there. I consider Goldstein to be the best source of information in English I have found so far because his works are based on meticulously documented source materials and interviews with all the key players. He is fluent in Tibetan (and I believe Chinese also) and more importantly has been doing field research in Tibet and among Tibetans and Han Chinese since the early 1960s. His short book, The Snow Lion and the Dragon (1997), is probably the best introductory overview. The Case Western Reserve Center for Research on Tibet is a great source of on line materials, references and links: http://www.case.edu/affil/tibet/. Goldstein is the head of the Center.

Second, in the US (and Europe) we are flooded with misinformation about Tibet and China, as the above examples illustrate. The misinformation is highly emotional and appeals to our best instincts but comes from sources with their own (often hidden) agendas. The sources which I have cited here are valuable because I think they rise above self-serving controversy with quality scholarship and analysis. If you are going to step into this very controversial part of the world, you owe it to Tibetans, to Han Chinese and to yourself to become more informed. Another US military adventure will, as in Iraq, only benefit the Haliburtons and Lukhangwas of this world and hurt a lot of innocent people.

Based on my reading and traveling I have concluded that there are cogent and credible arguments for Tibetan independence as well as for Tibet's inclusion in a multi-ethnic/multi-national China. I prefer the China "option" because I think we need a more multi-polar world with more examples of multi-ethnic states. We all have to live together. The West should be seeking ways for constructive reconciliation rather than encouraging confrontation by formally supporting China and informally supporting Tibetan Independence.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION: With respect to the practical information in the Lonely Planet Tibet, I plan to spend the next 2 and a half months traveling around Tibet and may submit another review later on the practical information later. It has been my experience that Lonely Planet guides provide good information on lodging and transportation and are generally good on food choices, shopping, entry tickets and hours of operation. Their maps are the best I have seen in guide books: practical, accurate and useable. The maps are the reason why I continue to use Lonely Planet. I have been to Tibetan areas of Gansu and Qinghai. I found the practical information contained in the Lonely Plant China book to be as useful as can be expected for places undergoing rapid change.

We used this as our primary guidebook on a four week bike trip along the Friendship Highway and it was excellent. Information is well organized and indexed, great maps and a little information about most everything you need to know. Some of the hotel and restaurant recommendations were out of date, but that's the nature of guidebooks. Lonely Planet has a website with current information.

In 2009 we took this book into Tibet and upon arrival in Lhasa, we were arrested and held under armed guard for 3 hours. Why? because the LP Guide to Tibet has a photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in it. They found it in our luggage, we were eventually relased, book confiscated.

This guidebook is certainly among Lonely Planet's best. It is at the same time an excellent travel guide, and also a fantastic yet concise source of insights into the life of this wonderful land. Anyone traveling to Tibet will inevitably encounter a number of restrictions on her/his travel, and will have to stick to the Chinese government's directives and itineraries. It is indeed hard to leave Tibet without a feeling that one was not really able to 'go deep' into its culture. This book might not compensate for the frustrating limitations posed to travelers by the Chinese government, but it certainly goes a good way towards that direction. It contains tips on how to make the most out of your trip, especially in terms of getting to know 'real' Tibet. Its sections on culture, religion and history are excellently written and captivating. All in all, a fantastic endeavour.

Thanks again for the Lonely Planet. This guide book was a great help for my trip to Tibel via China (summer 1999). It has alot of information about Lhasa and many of the cities. Please do not leave home without this book. From North Carolina to Tibet, no problem, with the help of the Lonely Planet. A rewarding and safe trip. My best advice came form a monk in Tibet "Walk Slowly". If anyone needs any help planning this trip please write,you should go....

If I was only allowed to take one book to Tibet it would definitely be the Lonely Planet. It has very useful information about the country, the religion, do's and don'ts, etc. I used this book to prepare for my trip and used it in Tibet to get more information on the city I was in or the tempel or monastery I was visiting. Very detailed information about the tempels, the history and what rooms and statues are what. Very useful information about Lhasa and great maps showing not only interesting sites but also the hotels (so you can find your way back).