Tibet, Tibet A Personal History of a Lost Land Book

I was asked the same question over and over, as I always was by rural Tibetans who were far from information: Did I know anything of Kundun, the Presence? Had I seen him? Was he safe? ... Would he ever come back to Tibet?
In the late 90s, Patrick French, a British activist and writer, traveled around Tibet - to learn and to see. His approach was to meet people where they are - markets, farms, businesses, public transportation. The Chinese authorities were aware of his presence, and many times tried to make things difficult. People were generous with their information, and in turn, French protects them all by keeping their identities private and confedential.

This intention of telling the stories of Tibet through its people, is lightly supplemented by French's own travel recounting - but he is conscious to keep the lens on Tibetans, not making the story about him and his travel. I really appreciated that approach, and this is something I wish other writers would do more of when including travelogue material.

While many in the West are aware of the Dalai Lama's story, there are approximately 5.5 million Tibetans who still live in the country proper, and identify as Tibetan ethnicity. Through them, we learn more about what happened after the People's Liberation Army (PLA) occupied the country, after the Dalai Lama fled/exiled to India. Stories of the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, post-Mao, and the current state of affairs. We hear this side: the stories of the farmers, the city dwellers imprisoned for trumped up charges, the young who have known no other life, and the old who remembered Kundun and independent Tibet.

Tibet, Tibet is richly detailed, educational in both politics and sociology, as well as prescient. The conflict, while decades old and not as high profile as it once was, is still happening, affecting the lives of millions of people.

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Read for Book Riot Read Harder Challenge task "Read a book that is set 5000 miles from your location". Google tells me I am about 7500 miles from Lhasa...