Sky Burial: An Eyewitness Account of China's Brutal Crackdown in Tibet [Paperback]

Blake Kerr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

Riveting firsthand account by a U.S. doctor of the recent turmoil in Tibet.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As a way of disposing of corpses in a climate that hampers decomposition, the Tibetans have a custom of taking corpses to a sacred place, breaking up the bones, chopping away the flesh, and leaving it all for vultures to clean up. This is called "sky burial," and as a metaphor for the plight of the Tibetan people, it couldn't be more apt--something Blake Kerr, a doctor fresh out of medical school, discovered by accident. During an innocent visit to Shangri-La, Kerr suddenly found himself treating the wounds of people beaten and shot during the largest riot in Tibet in almost 30 years.

Kerr and his mountaineering buddy John Ackerly start out as typical brazen adventurers. Through several happenstance contacts in Lhasa, however, they are introduced to the lives of Tibetans under communist occupation. What they see is disturbing. Gradually, their sympathies turn toward Tibet and ours toward them. When the riot breaks out, they risk life and limb to chronicle atrocities and assist the wounded. For weeks after, they engage in clandestine operations of assistance. And for years after, they work to bring the oppression, suffering, torture, murder, and forced sterilization of a helpless people to worldwide awareness. Part rollicking travel story, part investigative journalism, Sky Burial is finally a testament and will leave you staring blankly, wondering what can be done. --Brian Bruya

From Publishers Weekly

In 1987, Kerr, a young physician, and his friend John Ackerly, a lawyer, went to Tibet on an unabashedly larky jaunt in search of adventure. After impetuously hiking 22,000 feet on Chomohunga in sneakers, they were in Lhasa when a small group of Buddhist monks appeared chanting "China out of Tibet." Huge crowds gathered; the monks were arrested by Chinese police, some were rumored to have been beaten or shot and there was bloodshed in the now rioting crowd. Kerr and Ackerly were so deeply affected by the violence and by other evidence of Chinese repression of the Tibetans that they became activists in the cause of Tibetan independence. A year later, Kerr returned to document population control measures imposed by the Chinese on the Tibetans. He visited hospitals, observed several abortions and talked--sometimes in sign language, occasionally with the help of an interpreter--with doctors and patients, who described China's two-child limit, one-child-preferred population policies and the grossly unsanitary conditions of medical procedures. The small number of Tibetan voices, eccentric circumstances and emotional reporting detract from the impact of this part antic travelogue, part serious polemic.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 186 pages
• Publisher: Snow Lion Publications (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559390808
• ISBN-13: 978-1559390804
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,497,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational and very well documented., May 1, 2000

By 

tenzin kalden - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sky Burial: An Eyewitness Account of China's Brutal Crackdown in Tibet (Paperback)

i recomend this book to everyone and if you are a tibetan you must read it. this is one of the best books i have read on tibet and it gives you a very vivid picture of the october 1,1987 uprising in Lahsa and the events that followed. it inspired me and it reminded me as a tibetan that there are thousands of tibetans right now as we go about our daily lives, that are imprisoned and being tortured mercilessly in a dark, damp cell in some corner of tibet. it reminded me that i have a responsibility as a tibetan towards the freedom of tibet. i constantly sobbed throughout the book as i learned more and more how the chinese relentlessy killed tibetans and tortured them with cattle prods, riffle butts, electric batons and all kinds of horrifying instruments. the book also includes numerous interviews with tibetan refugees who have escaped the tyranny of the red star. Blake Kerr later travels to Dharamsala and meets the Dalai Lama. the book is very well written and i enjoyed reading it and the scant humur used in it. go read it...

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intense first hand account of China's crackdown in Tibet, March 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sky Burial: An Eyewitness Account of China's Brutal Crackdown in Tibet (Paperback)

I read this book on a recomendation from a friend and found that I could not put it down. Kerr's account of his experiences in Tibet where intense, and often times horrofying. The author told the story and you felt as if you were there on Everest, or in Lhasa when the bullets from the Chinese machine guns were flying. This is book is a true adventure into a scary land. I highly recommend this read!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brutal Truth About China in Tibet, September 13, 2003

By 

A. Rubin "bodrangzen" (upstate, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sky Burial: An Eyewitness Account of China's Brutal Crackdown in Tibet (Paperback)

This book brought me to tears. As an activist for the Tibetan cause, I thought I knew how bad things were there, then I read this book. It is fantastically written and includes photographs of China's atrocities in Tibet.

This book is the journey of a man. We watch him go from being a simple tourist and climber to being a doctor and a witness while being present at one of Tibet's largest recorded protests.

Anyone who cares about human rights should read this book