The Making of Modern Tibet [Paperback]

A. Tom Grunfeld (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: East Gate Book; Revised edition (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563247143
• ISBN-13: 978-1563247149
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,185,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most objective books on Tibet, September 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Making of Modern Tibet (Paperback)

The author worte in his introduction that "I have made every effort to use materials from most, if not all, contending points of view." The book clearly live up to his promise. This is one book filled with facts. On many pages one will find facts along with both the Chinese and the Tibetan contentions. It's history with muliple view points. The reader is therefore given a vast scope of information to contemplate the events.

The book covers Tibet's history from back in the days Buddhism and the Dalai Lamas first came into place in Tibet, to the turmoils of the 1950's, to the current situation, all in details that one can not find without vast research.

19 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grunfeld brings facts., November 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Making of Modern Tibet (Paperback)

Facts are solely missing in the on-going debate about China and Tibet. Grunfeld puts in the grunt-work and makes available to us a detailed, easy-to-read, and thought-provoking history/analisis of Tibet in the 20th century. As a Western scholar who's been condemned at times by both Beijing and Dharamsala, he must be getting something right.

Put this on your bookshelf... it will provide a perspective toward Tibet you might not have had before. You may want to balance this out with Tsering Shakya's equally-good volume.

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well written but one-sided, January 20, 2010

By 

Traveler (Florida USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Making of Modern Tibet (Paperback)

While this book is well written (the writing style and information make for a good read), and the author seems to have performed a good deal of research, this is far from an impartial history of Tibet as the author claims. After the author makes this claim in the opening pages he commences with a look at the nature of Tibetan society prior to 1959. While uncomfortable for those sympathetic to the Tibetan nation, this opening expose is quite interesting. The author points out, with some decent source citations, that far from being the "Shangri-la" that many imagine, pre-1959 Tibet was a nation where the majority of people lived a very destitute, hard existence, where political and legal rights for many were almost unknown, where a type of feudal system existed that was on the one hand supportive of the Buddhist religion but on the other permitted very harsh punishment meted out by the ruling elite. This is believeable as far as it goes. However, when one reads the balance of the book one wonders whether one is really getting the whole story even in this opening chapter.

The chapter dealing with the early history of Tibet seems innocuous and fairly balanced, although even here one begins to see that the author is focused on proving one of his central tenets - that Tibet was never really an independent nation and for most of its history maintained some filial relationship with China. This becomes noticeable when one reaches the great majority of the book, which deals with the Twentieth Century. Here the author's bias comes forth. With each succeeding chapter, telling Tibet's story chronologically (the first edition stopped in 1985 when it was published, but this revised edition runs to 1995), the author's pro-China sympathies become ever clearer. This becomes very annoying after awhile. I am an avid footnote reader so I checked his footnotes throughout. There are many citations to secondary sources which in themselves are suspect (Chinese popular publications and official newspapers for instance). In some cases, particularly dealing with the 1959 revolt and subsequent events, some of the author's most anti-Tibetan statements do not contain citations to sources at all. He even reverts in his writing (accidentally?) to using terms for the Dalai Lama and the exile government that are used in official Chinese government communiques (i.e. "The Dali Clique" and "the oligarchs"). He becomes free with his opinions questioning Tibetan sources and trying to discredit them but he quotes from official Chinese sources without comment or criticism. I gather that he felt that he had written an "impartial" history by merely citing to sources from both sides, but this is not the case if he takes the Tibetans (and their allies in the US, India and elsewhere) to task but says nothing of the intentions of the Chinese official writings from which he freely quotes and cites. Amazingly, while he details in several chapters the alleged wrongs perpetrated on many Tibetans by their ruling elite, monks, aristocracy, western governments, etc. he glosses over the effects of the Cultural Revolution on Tibet. He only ackowledges that many monasteries were destroyed, but makes no effort to try to calculate the number of Tibetans killed, jailed and tortured during this time. On the other hand he makes a tremendous effort to discredit the data from the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan exiles concerning the number of refugees who have fled Tibet since 1959.

Oddly, in the very last chapter of "conclusions" the author makes his most critical statements concerning China's rule in Tibet and the issue of Tibet's autonomy. This comes across as too little and too late to make up for a very stilted narrative overall.

If you want a general overview of Tibet, particularly its post-1950 history, from a Chinese point of view this book is pretty good. But for the pleasant writing style and a biased but thorough job of research and citation I would have given this book a 2 or 1. Take this work as an academically researched polemic but there is much more information to obtain to get "the whole picture".