Description
Most of Tibet’s people, its sturdy farmers and herders – those who would endure China’s cultural revolution and failed collectivization policies in the 1960s and 70s – were barely heard from or written about. Meanwhile scholars and others pursued the mysteries of Tibetan religion, studying its weighty Buddhist canons and the teachings of erudite lamas.
This book offers an opportune portrait of existential Tibet – a window into revitalized rural culture and economy inside Tibet at a critical period in its modern history.
In 1980 China’s liberalization policy meant Tibet became accessible to outsiders. (That opportunity lasted 15 years.) The author, an anthropologist already deeply familiar with its culture, ventured into Tibet to examine conditions for herself. Between 1985 and 1987, she spent months moving among Dingri’s archipelago of villages in the northern shadow of Mt. Everest. This book, filled with vibrant Tibetan personalities, is an unparalleled account of what she saw and whom she spoke to.
