Tibet, Tibet [Paperback]

Patrick French (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 28, 2004

At different times in its history Tibet has been renowned for pacifism and martial prowess, enlightenment and cruelty. The Dalai Lama may be the only religious leader who can inspire the devotion of agnostics. Patrick French has been fascinated by Tibet since he was a teenager. He has read its history, agitated for its freedom, and risked arrest to travel through its remote interior. His love and knowledge inform every page of this learned, literate, and impassioned book.

Talking with nomads and Buddhist nuns, exiles and collaborators, French portrays a nation demoralized by a half-century of Chinese occupation and forced to depend on the patronage of Western dilettantes. He demolishes many of the myths accruing to Tibet–including those centering around the radiant figure of the Dalai Lama. Combining the best of history, travel writing, and memoir, Tibet, Tibet is a work of extraordinary power and insight.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Penetrates to the heart of a mysterious country. . . . Everything you could want to know about Tibet is here.” — Conde Nast Traveler

“Far and away the best book on Tibet I have read. . . . unsparing yet always compassionate. . . . A brilliant unraveling of the myth of Tibet.” — Mick Brown, The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)


“Unflinching. . .French has a decided gift for inspired and heartfelt research. Strikingly scrupulous and disciplined, he wins readers’ trust. . .earns our admiration. . . [and] brilliantly dissects much that is fuzzy or wrong in the indiscriminate embrace of Tibet.” Pico Iyer, Los Angeles Times Book Review

“I am deeply grateful to Patrick French for going [to Tibet] and emerging with an insightful and compassionate report that tells me what I need to know about the beleagured magic kingdom.”–David Herndon, Newsday

From the Inside Flap

At different times in its history Tibet has been renowned for pacifism and martial prowess, enlightenment and cruelty. The Dalai Lama may be the only religious leader who can inspire the devotion of agnostics. Patrick French has been fascinated by Tibet since he was a teenager. He has read its history, agitated for its freedom, and risked arrest to travel through its remote interior. His love and knowledge inform every page of this learned, literate, and impassioned book.

Talking with nomads and Buddhist nuns, exiles and collaborators, French portrays a nation demoralized by a half-century of Chinese occupation and forced to depend on the patronage of Western dilettantes. He demolishes many of the myths accruing to Tibet–including those centering around the radiant figure of the Dalai Lama. Combining the best of history, travel writing, and memoir, Tibet, Tibet is a work of extraordinary power and insight.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (September 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400034175
• ISBN-13: 978-1400034178
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.6 x 7.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #92 in Books > History > Asia > Tibet

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Finding a Lost Land December 31, 2003

By Jeffery Steele

Format:Hardcover

Near the beginning of this book, while describing the inordinate amount of media and celebrity attention Tibet has received in recent years, Patrick French writes a funny line that I think captures the essence of why he wrote this part history/part travelogue/part memoir: "[The attention] made me recall the days when you had to say `Lhasa, the capital of Tibet,' in the same way you might say, `Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.'"

Tibet was once a place of remoteness to Westerners; today, it seems all too familiar to them, at least superficially. Its spiritual leader, its religion, and even some of its fashions are now widely recognized by many Europeans and Americans. Celebrities seem to fall hard for its causes. As a long-time advocate for Tibet, French, in some ways, assisted in this process and his book is something of a reassessment in how he looks at the place that is at once so familiar to many, yet remains widely misunderstood.

"Tibet, Tibet" is ostensibly about French's return to the Himalayan land to rediscover the place and people that have fascinated him since his teenage years. But along with personal observations made while traveling, he mixes in a good deal of Tibetan history, interviews with both prominent and unknown Tibetans, and, of course, large sections on the country that has dominated Tibet for most of the modern era: China. French writes in a discursive style, occasionally returning to subjects he has already covered to further elaborate on them.

The author is a man approaching middle-age who is revising his youthful views on Tibet and making the inevitable mental compromises that the young do not make. But this is not an angry repudiation or even mournful elegy of his former views; this is a mature work. While his love for Tibet and its people are still obvious, French now seems to realize that many of the causes he once advocated are so far removed from the reality that Tibetans must deal with everyday that those causes have become unhelpful to them.

This is not to say that French seeks to downplay what has happened to the Tibetans. His descriptions of what the Chinese (as well as the British and Americans) have done to Tibet are about as subtle as a punch to the stomach. But he now knows that the destinies of Tibet and China are tied together, and that it no longer makes sense to speak of a "Free Tibet" without speaking of a "Free China".

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a balanced look at Tibet July 23, 2004

By Spyral

Format:Hardcover

I read this book after a short trip to Lhasa, during which time I did a more limited and amateur version of what French has done in this book. As a college student I was familiar with the activist youth groups that have become standard fare on all U.S. campuses. As a student of East Asian studies I was also familiar with the Chinese counter-claims with respect to Tibet. When the opportunity presented itself to me I went to judge for myself. While there I reached a similar conclusion that French did during his own travels through China and Tibet. Suffice it to say that French is dismayed by both sides. The Chinese are not telling the truth, we all knew this, but neither are the Tibetans in exile and their Tibetophile Western cohorts a trustworthy source from which to base opinion from. French is under no delusion, horrible things happened in Tibet, especially during the Cultural Revolution, and there are still shady happenings going on in Tibet. The thing to remember, and the thing that French has laudably included in this work, is that similar things, and sometimes worse things, happened in China at the same time, and a "Free Tibet" is not possible without a free China. In this way French may anger many of those in the Free Tibet camp by forever linking the destiny of Tibetans with that of the nation of China. French even surprised me by speculating that perhaps the Western activist movement (A movement which French himself is, or at least was, involved in)has actually hurt, rather than helped the Tibetans, an opinion that had also started to form in my mind before reading this book. All in all I can say without a doubt that this is probably the best book written yet on the political and social conditions regarding Tibet and the Free Tibet Movement. My only problem with the work is that it was not longer.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Objective Tibet August 2, 2006

By Souvik Mitra VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This book operates on three levels - as a historical text that links the current Tibet back to its historical roots, as a travelogue that describes the author's journey through Tibet, the places he goes through, the sights he sees, &, finally, as journalistic interviews of seemingly ordinary people but who historically, or in the current context, represent a section of people who have shaped Tibet.

Together these three approaches create a very coherent & complete picture of Tibet both socio-politically within Chinese borders as well as in the world outside, particularly the West. French also seems to be a cogent analyst of events, & his objectivity comes across many-a-time when he discusses issues like the political lameness of the "Free Tibet" movement in the west, the Dalai Lama's political failures to take advantage of certain Chinese overtures in the past, & Tibet's own societal ideologies in the latter part of the second millenium that contributed to its fall to China.

And luckily, because histories mingle, this is also a book on China, the Cultural Revolution & its horrors, Chairman Mao's rise to power, his ruthless version of communism & other Chinese political currents & customs.

Overall, a most informative & analytical book - one that'll help the interested reader appreciate the current realities of Tibet holistically.

S!