Customer Reviews

Tibet: Reflections from the Wheel of Life

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More than a coffee table book, to be sure. The images are stunning and emphasize the mythic narrative that gently reveals Tibetan culture in a sensitive and compelling way. Unfortunately, there is not quite enough info on the Chinese point of view and China's 3000 year old history of interference with and claims (generally bogus at best but still rather important) on Tibet which no doubt played no small role in the PRC's occupation and colonization of Tibet. While this book does eloquently provide the Tibetan in exile perspective, it's useful to understand what China's claims over Tibet entail and the history behind it, if for nothing else, to simply be more effective in refuting some of the more egregious and specious claims made by the PRC. The book does at least mention the interference by the UK and USA, specifically Nixon's pulling funding and support from the Tibetan guerillas resisting the PRC invasions and occupation of the 1950's, but it doesn't go far enough to name the names of the culprits in the US corporate juggernaut responsible for abandoning the entire nation and culture of Tibet in favor of the racist Chinese imperial/colonial occupation nor the US's help to China in getting maps redrawn which effectively eliminate Tibet from younger generations' minds. That's criminal and should have been in this book. The book also falls prey, unfortunately, to the Shangri-La myth common among American Tibet supporters; that Tibet was blissful and egalitarian prior to Chinese invasion. It decidedly was not, although tremendous compassion is due to the 14th Dalai Lama for recognizing their shortcomings and taking steps even in exile to overcome this. And, in no way should that justify China's actions by any stretch. If you read the book with the view that this is one narrative, one presentation, it's quite a good one, and at least a fully fleshed out version. It begs for a companion book that allows the grit and grime of everday Tibetan working class reality and the real shocks to Tibet culture the Chinese "modernization" and "liberation" propaganda nonsense represent. If the world gets to know the truth through this book and others like it, Tibet may yet have a chance. The book is gorgeous and really well written, the latter being something most "coffee table" books lack.