Customer Reviews

Sorrow Mountain: The Journey of a Tibetan Warrior Nun

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This story is appealing on many levels, not the least of which is its thoughtful, powerful, flowing prose. The writers bring us the dramatic history and culture of the expansive country of Tibet through the personal oddyssey of the amazing Ani Pachen. An early surprise is learning about the day-to-day life of a Tibetan town and its culture prior to the Chinese invasion. Quite poignant is the Tibetan perspective of the Chinese Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Far from being merely a catalogue of the long string of horrific abuses on the part of her captors, Donnelley sensitively narrates the details of Ani Pachen's 21-year imprisonment and torture by weaving the narrative with the gems of Ani's faith. While it is emotionally-draining, the reader is provided opportunities to regain strength. You cannot avoid being deeply moved by the power of this woman and her fellow Tibetans -- and moved to help save her culture. Read this book!

Ani Pachen & Adelaide Donnelly (2000), Sorrow Mountain: The Journey of a Tibetan Warrior-Nun, New York: Kodansha International, pp 293. Foreword by the Dalai Lama and preface by Richard Gere.

Some people live lives of such difficulty and suffering that it is hard to imagine how they carry on. Other people live lives in which they inflict so much suffering and difficulty that it is hard to imagine how they carry on. This book is a story of both kinds of lives.

It is primarily the story of Ani Pachen: a Tibetan woman born to a privileged life who lost everything when the Chinese invaded, became a resistance leader, was captured, tortured and endured 21 years of horrific imprisonment. When finally released she took part in protest movements before fleeing to India where she became a nun.

It is also a larger story of the Tibetan people and their Chinese oppressors. Invaded, oppressed, mistreated and murdered, the Tibetan people have endured for almost half a century their own holocaust in which 1 million of their 6 million people have been killed. This book puts a personal face on their suffering. As such it is a moving monument to the courage and forbearance of a person and a people. A moving foreword by the Dalai Lama and an equally moving preface by Richard Gere add further perspectives to the book. As Richard Gere concludes "May this book help to dispel the darkness of this darkest night of Tibetan history and be of benefit to all beings everywhere. May the hearts of our Chinese brothers and sisters be opened and may they quickly come to their senses."

Sorrow Mountain is both a novel and a woman's life story. As Adelaide Donnelley explains in an afterword, "It is as much narrative as strict biography." Stories of the "life" of Ani Pachen, including her spiritual power to transcend torture and twenty-one years of imprisonment, and to transform destruction into hope, were the BASIS for this remarkable book. Ani Pachen wanted to be a nun, living peacefully and not killing (many Tibetan people have a religious calling); the circumstances of her birth forced her to become a warrior against the Chinese (again, this echoes the history of those of her generation). Captured, imprisoned, and tortured, she preserved her spiritual beliefs and her integrity (again, read the story of many her generation; the difference is that so many did not survive). Ani Pachen survived, made it to Dharamsala, and finally lives a life of meditation and spiritual focus. Thousands of Tibetans have escaped; many of those now live in northern India with His Holiness. The spiritual example they set: certainty of impermanence, compassion, forgiveness, and detachment--works for everyone on the planet. All of this matters.

But there is something more which matters. This book, like the story of its subject, transcends and crosses boundaries: in form, in approach. It is a novel, a spiritual guidebook, a history of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. The tone is mythic: "My country was once at the roof of the world, a place where the great spirits lived." The tone is cinematic: "In a darkened corner of my mind, a small patch of green appears. I watch it grow brighter, larger, until a vast green meadow stretches out at my feet. The meadow is dotted with clusters of flowers and is treeless, except for a willow or two." The tone is intensely personal, acutely descriptive: in prison, "The lice were so bad that I could see them crawling all over the heads in front of me. So thick I could sweep them off with my hand and not make a difference in their numbers."

The story is woven of dreams, memories, Buddhist teachings, horrors re-lived or imagined, and above all details that give it taste, sound, texture, and breath. As a work of art, it breaks all prior boundaries and should be studied by all writers who ever consider telling life stories--their own or anyone else's. If there is any drawback to the book, it is only that we cannot know what is Ani Pachen's voice and what is Adelaide Donnelley's. A Buddhist would assure us that the illusion of separation is unimportant, temporary, superficial. A Buddhist would tell us that Ani Pachen's story, and Adelaide Donnelley's storytelling genius, have become one voice for all of us. As the editor of another woman's life story, I come to this book to learn. I look back at my work and see how much trouble I took to leave Mpho Nthunya's voice exactly as it was, to be merely a secretary, taking dictation from her. I tried to keep my white privilege and sensibility out of the way of her African experience and her African ways of seeing. I think that was a good thing to do. But I deeply admire the merging of voices in the Pachen/Donnelley collaboration. It is a miracle to read, to study, to learn from. I am deeply grateful for it.

Need a reality check? Feeling sorry for your life? Then read Sorrow Mountain and experience life at it's best and worst. It will lift one out of ordinary existence into the realm of compassion and tolerance. One will begin to experience the essence of the Tibetan region and the mystical struggles of one held prisoner by torturous bandits who tried to steal the Heart of Compassion and failed. Turn off the tv "reality" shows and experience the real-ness of Ani Pachen and her Sorrow Mountain. I guarantee it will become your Sorrow Mountain too.

The story of Ani Pachen resonates with the kind of courage and spiritual certainty that perhaps very few of us our capable, but all of us admire. In contrast to her indomitable strength, the Chinese occupation of Tibet takes on outrageous dimensions -- an ugliness and brutality hard to bear. For one nine-month period during her twenty-one years of imprisonment, Ani Pachen endured a dark, earthen cell slightly larger than her body where she spent her time praying, accomplishing one hundred thousand prostrations devoted to the well-being of all. When released by the Chinese, she took up the cause of a free Tibet in Lhasa, demonstrating against the torture and murder of her people and country, putting herself in the greatest possible peril. Ani Pachen has lived at the very depths of the soul and sorrow of Tibet and emerged triumphant, a woman of compassion and beauty who will inspire all who read her magnificent story.

Ani Panchen, the only daughter of a Tibetan Cheiftan was looking forward to a life of contemplation after narrowly escaping an arranged marriage. However, after the invasion of Chinese Communist forces & the death of her father, Ani is compelled to carry on the wishes of her father & help lead rebel Tibetans defending their homeland.

For her involvement in the resistance, Ani spends the next 21 years of her life in prison. Living from day to day with the hope that in time she will meet with his Holiness the Dalai Lama. Her courage & spirit to fight & survive are astounding. This is her testimony for all the thousands of political prisoners still being held in Chinese prisons for 'crimes' such as 'waving a Tibetan flag' or shouting for independence.

This book is another blot on China's human rights record. For similar reading try 'Fire under the Snow' by Palden Gyatso.

I am grateful that a friend gave me this book. It is so beautiful. And it is important. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is concerned about Tibet, or even about human rights in general. Or for someone who wants to read an exquisite story about a surviver, a warrior. This book will inspire everyone who reads it.

When I first held this book in my hand, I was captivated by the picture of a Tibetan woman's face that measured less than a half inch square on the book's cover. Who is this Ani Pachen? I asked myself. And what bliss lies on the other side of Sorrow Mountain that she wears it so? This beautiful face shines with such a radiance of love and enlightenment, that I carry it now in my mind and heart. One afternoon when I was sitting in my recliner halfway dozing off, as I was recovering from a minor accident which was more painfull than serious, I held the book up and said to my wife, "I've only managed to read six pages." Which brought me not quite to page 100. The next morning I held the book again before her and said, "I could not have survived what this woman has. I'm not sure I've ever known anyone who could have." I held my emotions in check, as I had cried the night before, when I turned the final pages. My wife looked at the book and said, "You've never read a book that fast before." This was not far from true. I spoke briefly about the book and then I spoke my heart aloud. "I know we have no money, but I feel compelled to do something for the people of Tibet." If this review resonates with your heart, then I have made a start. As someone who loves the Chinese people and culture, it was difficult for me to read about the atrocities committed against the Tibetan people during the Cultual Revolution. After watching her homeland destroyed and her people murdered, after enduring 21 years of torture and imprisonment, Ani Pachen's message is pure, as she prays for an end to all human suffering.

I just finished reading this book and didn't want to put it down. The story of Ani Pachen is both horrifying and inspiring, how she against all odds not only survived but kept her faith, battling against her own anger at her captors to try to reach a higher spirit of generosity. The writing of Adelaide Donnelley is gorgeous and poetic, capturing the inner spirit and the mystical beauty of the land in words that lift this book to a high literary level. This book deserves to be widely read over many years. But it! Read it! It will move you.

I first came across this compelling book when attending some talks from His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. My boyfriend comes back from the bookstore and tells me that he found a book he knows I'd be interested in. Well, he was right! Sorrow Mountain is a story about a woman torn between her religious beliefs and her duty to fight for country. Dedicated to both, the book describes the trials and tribulations Ani Panchen goes through and how she survives by believing one day she will be able to be near her religious leader His Holiness. There is a great introduction by Richard Gere and by the Dalai Lama himself. I am fortunate I was able to purchase a signed copy and will treasure it for a long time.