Namma: a Tibetan Love Story [Hardcover]

Kate Karko (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2000

In this story of her love and marriage to Tibetan, Tsedup, Kate Karko tells of the plight of the dignified, nomadic Tibetans, as the tale unravels of a girl from the suburbs, who went to live in a tent on the roof of the world. Paperback edition ISBN 0340794631.

Editorial Reviews

Review

On holiday in Northern India, Kate Karko met and fell in love with a striking young nomad in exile from his Chinese-occupied Tibetan homeland. A year later they were married, bringing about an unusual meeting of two cultures. This is the non-fiction account of how they returned to England, where a man at home in the remote grasslands of Amdo had to adjust to the English suburbs. And then of how they made an extraordinary journey to be with his tribal family in Tibet, before returning again to settle in London. It's an interesting account of the meeting of cultures - colourfully informative about the little-known nomadic tribes of Tibet, and more than incidentally so about Tibet's current fate at the hands of the Chinese. Sub-titled A Tibetan Love Story, it does sail at times a little close to a rather misty-eyed form of romanticism, but is in general a readable and winning account of a life-altering adventure, written with a mature openness towards and respect for the totally "other" way of life in which the author attempts to immerse herself.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Hodder Hb (October 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340767391
• ISBN-13: 978-0340767399
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,300,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You should read it if you interest Tibet ..., April 9, 2005

By 

T. Chang (Los Angeles, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Namma: a Tibetan Love Story (Paperback)

Kate is a brave English girl and has a heart to learn, understand to a complete new world, so far away. In Tibet the life is so tough, but you will learn lots things, not the life style or the custom, but the view to our life, to understand the meaning of our life. This is a great book to read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Namma A Tibetan Love Story, August 25, 2005

By 

spanishlady (Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Namma: a Tibetan Love Story (Paperback)

A wonderful tale. I could not put this book down. I cant wait to hear more of Kate, Tsedups lives.

2.0 out of 5 stars Pollyana in Shangri La, July 2, 2011

By 

bookworm - See all my reviews

This review is from: Namma: a Tibetan Love Story (Paperback)

I found it totally unrealistic. Kate Karko's namma struck me as a cross between Mills and Boons and an adventure travel book.
She married a refugee, a man without papers yet hardly mentions this in her book. She briefly writes 'nothing had prepared me for the pain of living with a refugee' but then quickly moves on to more starry eyed prose. There is no mention of the political situation in Tibet, of the lack of education and basic healthcare in the countryside, of the poverty and squalor. Sure the landscape is beautiful but it is hardly a place where people are fairly treated by their long term invaders and where their basic needs are met.
Her husband must have suffered from serious culture shock on arriving in London yet she mostly talks about him getting a modelling contract and living in a small flat. Most Tibetans I have met do cleaning jobs, wash dishes or chop vegetables in Chinese restaurants. Most live in poky, squalid rooms which they share with many others. Kate is giving the impression that life for a Tibetan in the West is a rags to riches Hollywood tale.
Marrying someone from a totally different culture (a culture which does not believe in monogamy or fidelity within marriage) and living amongst an exile community doesn't get a mention.
I find her story hard to believe, my feeling is that she wrote a highly glossy version of a Dharamsala marriage in order to make money.