Fourteen stories by young writers from China and Tibet are collected in Tales of Tibet: Sky Burials, Wind Horses, and Prayer Wheels (edited and trans. by Herbert Batt), a volume intended to record and dramatize the relationship between Tibetans and their Chinese colonizers. Both groups of writers focus on the venerable Buddhist traditions of Tibet. The country's history under foreign powers and its role as spiritual mecca undergird the tales, which feature, variously, a Tibetan beggar who claims to own a rich man's house, a British commander who invades Tibet in 1904 and a Buddhist nun who achieves a state of perfect compassion.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
Vivid images of Tibet spring to life in this landmark book, the first to offer a selection of fiction by Tibetan authors, both men and women, ever published in the English-speaking world. In translation from the original Chinese, contemporary Tibetan and Chinese writers lead us to a numinous land above the clouds. Life, death, love--the universal themes of literature--assume a magical aura in haunting Tibetan settings. These literary gems--several banned in China itself--will engage general readers and students searching for a unique encounter with a Tibet struggling to maintain its age-old civilization under the cultural onslaught of the Chinese regime.