3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
when you feel like something other than politics, January 12, 2006
This review is from: Tibet: The Secret Continent (Hardcover)
This book differentiates itself from others that I've seen and read about Tibet. If your looking for indepth political comentary on the Chinese-Tibetan struggle you won't find too much here. The focus of this book is more about giving you the reader a sense of the people, the place, and the history behind it.
The book, though never going into vast detail, does a good job of presenting many aspects of Tibetan life and culture. It ranges from marriage customs to plateau animal and plant life. It brings together the detail and reliability of the scholar with the varied interests of the traveler. The other reviewer has remarked on the lack of personal stories. While I could see how here and there it might add something to this book, if that's what you're looking for why not go purchase a traveler's account? I personally perfer something a little more systematic and less prone to misinformation.
Where this book really sets itself apart is in the respresentation of more outlying parts of the Tibetan kingdom, such as Ladakh, Guge, and Mustang. It is interesting to see how their interaction with other peoples has created physical and cultural differences. (I showed some of the pictures of these people to a Tibetan friend and he just said, "that is not Tibetan", lol).
Lastly, but not leastly, there are beautiful pictures in this book. BEAUTIFUL! They are diverse, covering people, landscape, buildings, and some animals too. They are clear and bright, and alone merit the purchase of this book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very informative and with spectacular photographs, a first-rate book on Tibet!, December 30, 2009
_Tibet: The Secret Continent_ by Michel Peissel was one I had originally bought for its gorgeous photography as it includes many jaw-dropping pictures of the absolutely epic Tibetan landscape, diverse Tibetan peoples, and fascinating wildlife.
The introduction chapter points out just how large Tibet is; the author does not limit himself to any "one Tibet," such as Chinese Tibet. No, he speaks of Greater Tibet, a vast region centering on the Tibetan plateau, a "secret continent" set in the very heart of Asia, four times the size of Texas or France.
Chapter one dealt with geology. This region, which the Tibetans call Bod (pronounced Peu) and the Chinese call Tufan, is dominated by the existence of the mighty Himalayas, immense mountain ranges with protect Tibet from the full force of the monsoon rains (resulting in most of Tibet being dry and sunny and its farmers often having to use irrigation).
Eastern Tibet is mountainous and is "furrowed" by mighty rivers, indeed, the four greatest rivers of Asia start here, the Yellow, the Yangtze, the Mekong, and Salween. The western half is a "flat, wind-scoured, high-altitude plateau covered with salty lakes." The existence of the mountains and the mighty river valleys show the two main geological forces at work in shaping Tibet; the clash of continents, as the tectonic plate that supports the Indian subcontinent continues to plow into the Eurasian Plate, pushing Tibet ever higher (the Tibetan plateau alone has an average altitude of 15,420 feet, which is almost the height of Mont Blanc in Europe and yet still 2 ½ miles below the region's highest peaks) and erosion.
Chapter two is an all-too-brief introduction to Tibet's flora and fauna. Wide-ranging botanists were some of the first Westerners to explore Tibet. As with geology, Tibet can be divided into two regions; the western high, dry cold plateau (which some areas, such as the Changtang or "northern plains" seemingly quite barren, "synonymous with hardship and desolation," support many thousands of Tibetan antelopes, gazelles, wild sheep, kiang, hares, rabbits, and marmots, all feed on by bears, wolves, foxes, lynx, martens, jackals, and snow leopards) and the eastern ranges, some of which receive decent rainfall and have a rich diversity of microclimates, plants (notably orchids and a vast array of medicinal plants, many of which are included in the 1,000+ listed in the Tibetan Materia medica), and animals (such as the panda, known to Tibetans as the dom trata or "piebald bear").
The star of this chapter is the yak. Interestingly the yak is the Tibetan name for the domesticated bulls. Females are called dri. Male and female wild yak are called drong; once numbered in the thousands, vast herds of animals bigger than either bison or Cape buffalo, but have now largely vanished. Today they are important domesticated animals, of which several breeds exist.
More research has been done on the various horse breeds native to Tibet (of which there are gorgeous pictures). One breed, the Nanghchen, has enlarged lungs and is well-adapted to the rarefied air of the plateau, while another breed, the Riwoche, closely resembles the wild horses that they originated from.
Chapter three examined Tibetan society. The author discussed the origins of the Tibetan peoples and the two main communities that live in the region, the drokpa (nomadic herders of the high plateau), and the rongpa (the settled, grain-growing farmers of the lower valleys). Though they live distinct lives, they frequently trade together. Other things the reader learns; the staple diet of all of Greater Tibet is the roasted barley ground to form tsampa, a cooked flour, supplemented by sun-dried yak meat and cheese and mutton. The main beverage is Tibetan tea (which is more like a soup of tea made with salt, butter, and milk), though barley beer, or chang, is the national alcoholic drink. Some areas of Tibet are known for Neolithic standing stones, some of which are still considered sacred, others of which have been dismantled to make Buddhist chortens. Tibetan land inheritance for centuries was very unusual; when a man's eldest son married, he stepped down and handed over his property and status to his son, with no subdivision of the land. Tibetans love music and story-telling and are fond of the dramatic festivals known as cham in which masked and costumed dancers celebrate Buddhism's triumph over the native shamanistic Bon religion.
Chapter four looked at the rise of the Tibetan nation, how it went from many independent principalities and loose federations in the early seventh century to form a mighty empire that covered a vast area, beating China many times and even today demonstrating a lasting legacy; thirteen centuries later the spoken and written forms of Tibetan as well as the Tibetan form of Buddhism that is practiced are hallmarks of this empire. After the tenth century Tibet's influence largely was of a religious, not a military, nature as Buddhism took hold and political unity broke down.
The fifth chapter looked at the golden age of Tibetan Buddhism beginning in the late 900s. Great centers of art and learning, the monasteries were a stabilizing factor in proving a "good outlet for the energy and intelligence of that segment of the population - namely the landless sons - that might have otherwise have manifested itself in mischief." The chapter also looked at the Mongols in Tibet (Tibet escaped rather lightly), the rise of the Dalai Lamas, the strange isolated towers (garong), some up to 160 feet high, erected in this time period, and the mighty and gorgeous Potala Palace.
Chapter six looked at Tibetan Buddhist practices in some detail as well as life in the monastery and chapter seven detailed the exploration of Tibet and its relations with the West. Chapter eight was called "Plunder and Destruction" and looked at the problems caused by British invasions and Chinese rule. Chapter nine looked at the future of Tibet, particularly Chinese rule, the revolt called the War of Kanting, and the Dalai Lama government in exile.
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