- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; First American Edition edition (7 April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002571099
- ISBN-13: 978-0002571098
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.4 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
846,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #93 in Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Asia > Tibet
Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
From the reviews of Younghusband:
‘The outstanding debut of a brilliant new biographer’
Michael Holroyd
‘I found myself reading through the night. This is a rare gem of a book’
Fiammetta Rocco, Independent on Sunday
‘They don’t come much more enjoyable than this’
Jan Morris, Independent
From the reviews of Liberty or Death:
‘Brilliant… There can surely now be no serious doubt French is the most impressive Western historian of modern India currently at work’
Frank McLynn, Glasgow Herald
‘Well-researched, beautifully written and immensely scholarly’
Andrew Roberts, Sunday Times
Product Description
In 1982, while he was still a schoolboy, Patrick French met the Dalai Lama for the first time. Ever since, he has been fascinated by Tibet’s people, its history, and its recent plight.
For centuries, Tibet has occupied a unique place in the Western imagination: romantic, mysterious, a remote mountain kingdom of incarnate lamas and nomadic herdsmen, of gold-roofed monasteries and hidden valleys which hold the secret of eternal youth. In recent years, Tibet has acquired an additional resonance as the oppressed vassal of its mighty neighbour China. Its plight has attracted Hollywood stars, and the exiled Dalai Lama has become the global embodiment of spiritual attainment and unflagging commitment to his nation. The effect of these myths has been more to obscure than to reveal the reality of the country, its people and its plight.
Tibet, Tibet has its origins in Patrick French’s twenty-year involvement in the Tibetan cause. Part memoir, part travel book, part history, it is a quest for the true Tibet. He finds a land with a long, warlike past and a complex interlocking relationship with China. He meets victims and perpetrators of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and young nuns who continue the fight against Communist rule. He stays in the tents of nomads, and hears first-hand accounts of the hopeless battle against overwhelmingly superior Chinese forces which ended, in a single day, a way of life which had endured for thousands of years.
On his journey, Patrick French is continually sidetracked by a cascade of information, thoughts and reflections on such subjects as how to blind a cabinet minister using a yak’s knucklebones, the correct method of travelling across a desert by night, and the reasons for the Dalai Lama’s transformation into ‘an unknown dark-brown bird, bigger than a normal raven’. Patrick French has found a new way of writing about a place and its history. He fascinatingly illuminates one of the most persistently troubling of international issues, and confirms his reputation as one of the finest writers at work today.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The great strength of this book is the author's detailed personal knowledge of the subject, and of the personalities involved in modern Tibetan history. I found it a clear-eyed and credible picture of the country, her history, and her prospects. The trick with Tibet is to steer a course between Shangri-La romanticism on the one hand, and the Paul Theroux school of misanthropic travel writing on the other. French manages this very well. There is some fine, diligent journalism here, only very slightly marred with spots of New Left idiocy. "In December 1971, Henry Kissinger tried without success to perswuade China to invade India." Ah, Kissinger the Antichrist. However, these are small and occasional blemishes in an otherwise excellent and extremely informative book. French writes very well, too, and lots of images linger in the mind--the deranged storekeeper on p. 134, the packs of candy exploding in the thin air, a crushing glimpse of CNN's moronic Larry King, etc. etc. I enjoyed this book, and got a vivid picture of Tibet, both past and present, from it.
Format:Paperback
One of the best books about Tibet I've read. It's not just boring info about the country's history and struggles, but this seen and dissemated by personal experiences. You can tell that Patrick French's heart is beating for this place and he want's to put it in a bright but fair light.
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent book. Patrick French is a highly intelligent seeker of the truth. He manages to find out more about Tibet than we have known before and shows us the reality of this strange country. He does so at some risk to himself but his account must surely be the closest we can get to this country. It is an important book because it dispels many existing myths. It also gives a frank and very hostile view of China.
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