Download or read book Tibet written by Sam van Schaik and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-28 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a comprehensive history of the country, from its beginnings in the seventh century, to its rise as a Buddhist empire in medieval times, to its conquest by China in 1950, and subsequent rule by the Chinese.
Download or read book Tibet Tibet written by Patrick French and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2004 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. 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.
Download or read book Tibet at a Glance written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Medicine and Memory in Tibet written by Theresia Hofer and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Only fifty years ago, Tibetan medicine, now seen in China as a vibrant aspect of Tibetan culture, was considered a feudal vestige to be eliminated through government-led social transformation. Medicine and Memory in Tibet examines medical revivalism on the geographic and sociopolitical margins both of China and of Tibet�s medical establishment in Lhasa, exploring the work of medical practitioners, or amchi, and of Medical Houses in the west-central region of Tsang. Due to difficult research access and the power of state institutions in the writing of history, the perspectives of more marginal amchi have been absent from most accounts of Tibetan medicine. Theresia Hofer breaks new ground both theoretically and ethnographically, in ways that would be impossible in today�s more restrictive political climate that severely limits access for researchers. She illuminates how medical practitioners safeguarded their professional heritage through great adversity and personal hardship.
Download or read book Meltdown in Tibet written by Michael Buckley and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tibetans have experienced waves of genocide since the 1950s. Now they are facing ecocide. The Himalayan snowcaps are in meltdown mode, due to climate change—accelerated by a rain of black soot from massive burning of coal and other fuels in both China and India. The mighty rivers of Tibet are being dammed by Chinese engineering consortiums to feed the mainland's thirst for power, and the land is being relentlessly mined in search of minerals to feed China's industrial complex. On the drawing board are plans for a massive engineering project to divert water from Eastern Tibet to water-starved Northern China. Ruthless Chinese repression leaves Tibetans powerless to stop the reckless destruction of their sacred land, but they are not the only victims of this campaign: the nations downstream from Tibet rely heavily on rivers sourced in Tibet for water supply, and for rich silt used in agriculture. This destruction of the region's environment has been happening with little scrutiny until now. In Meltdown in Tibet, Michael Buckley turns the spotlight on the darkest side of China's emergence as a global super power.
Download or read book A Historical Atlas of Tibet written by Karl E. Ryavec and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-05-08 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pioneering work documents cultural and religious sites across the Tibetan Plateau and its bordering regions from the Paleolithic Era to today. Western fascination with Tibet has soared in recent decades, yet this historic and globally celebrated region has barely been mapped. With this groundbreaking atlas, Karl E. Ryavec sweeps aside the image of Tibet as Shangri-La, offering a comprehensive vision of the region as it really is. The product of twelve years of research and eight more of mapmaking, the results are absolutely stunning. A Historical Atlas of Tibet ranges through the five main periods in Tibetan history, offering introductory maps of each followed by details of western, central, and eastern regions. It beautifully visualizes the history of Tibetan Buddhism, tracing its spread throughout Asia, with thousands of temples mapped, both within Tibet and across North China and Mongolia, all the way to Beijing. There are maps of major polities and their territorial administrations, as well as of the kingdoms of Guge and Purang in western Tibet, and of Derge and Nangchen in Kham. There are town plans of Lhasa and maps that focus on history and language, on population, natural resources, and contemporary politics. Extraordinarily comprehensive and absolutely gorgeous, this volume makes a major contribution in the realms of cartography, Asian studies, and Buddhist studies.
Download or read book Land of Pure Vision written by David Zurick and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-07-09 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wars have played a momentous role in shaping the course of human history. The ever-present specter of conflict has made it an enduring topic of interest in popular culture, and many movies, from Hollywood blockbusters to independent films, have sought to show the complexities and horrors of war on-screen. In The Philosophy of War Films, David LaRocca compiles a series of essays by prominent scholars that examine the impact of representing war in film and the influence that cinematic images of battle have on human consciousness, belief, and action. The contributors explore a variety of topics, including the aesthetics of war as portrayed on-screen, the effect war has on personal identity, and the ethical problems presented by war. Drawing upon analyses of iconic and critically acclaimed war films such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Thin Red Line (1998), Rescue Dawn (2006), Restrepo (2010), and Zero Dark Thirty (2012), this volume's examination of the genre creates new ways of thinking about the philosophy of war. A fascinating look at the manner in which combat and its aftermath are depicted cinematically, The Philosophy of War Films is a timely and engaging read for any philosopher, filmmaker, reader, or viewer who desires a deeper understanding of war and its representation in popular culture.
Download or read book Eat the Buddha written by Barbara Demick and published by Random House. This book was released on 2020-07-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the bestselling author of Nothing to Envy “A brilliantly reported and eye-opening work of narrative nonfiction.”—The New York Times Book Review NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Parul Sehgal, The New York Times • The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • NPR • The Economist • Outside • Foreign Affairs Just as she did with North Korea, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick explores one of the most hidden corners of the world. She tells the story of a Tibetan town perched eleven thousand feet above sea level that is one of the most difficult places in all of China for foreigners to visit. Ngaba was one of the first places where the Tibetans and the Chinese Communists encountered one another. In the 1930s, Mao Zedong’s Red Army fled into the Tibetan plateau to escape their adversaries in the Chinese Civil War. By the time the soldiers reached Ngaba, they were so hungry that they looted monasteries and ate religious statues made of flour and butter—to Tibetans, it was as if they were eating the Buddha. Their experiences would make Ngaba one of the engines of Tibetan resistance for decades to come, culminating in shocking acts of self-immolation. Eat the Buddha spans decades of modern Tibetan and Chinese history, as told through the private lives of Demick’s subjects, among them a princess whose family is wiped out during the Cultural Revolution, a young Tibetan nomad who becomes radicalized in the storied monastery of Kirti, an upwardly mobile entrepreneur who falls in love with a Chinese woman, a poet and intellectual who risks everything to voice his resistance, and a Tibetan schoolgirl forced to choose at an early age between her family and the elusive lure of Chinese money. All of them face the same dilemma: Do they resist the Chinese, or do they join them? Do they adhere to Buddhist teachings of compassion and nonviolence, or do they fight? Illuminating a culture that has long been romanticized by Westerners as deeply spiritual and peaceful, Demick reveals what it is really like to be a Tibetan in the twenty-first century, trying to preserve one’s culture, faith, and language against the depredations of a seemingly unstoppable, technologically all-seeing superpower. Her depiction is nuanced, unvarnished, and at times shocking.
Download or read book The Dawn of Tibet written by John Vincent Bellezza and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-08-29 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique book reveals the existence of an advanced civilization where none was known before, presenting an entirely new perspective on the culture and history of Tibet. In his groundbreaking study of an epic period in Tibet few people even knew existed, John Vincent Bellezza details the discovery of an ancient people on the most desolate reaches of the Tibetan plateau, revolutionizing our ideas about who Tibetans really are. While many associate Tibet with Buddhism, it was also once a land of warriors and chariots, whose burials included megalithic arrays and golden masks. This first Tibetan civilization, known as Zhang Zhung, was a cosmopolitan one with links extending across Eurasia, bringing it in line with many of the major cultural innovations of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age. Based on decades of research, The Dawn of Tibet draws on a rich trove of archaeological, textual, and ethnographic materials collected and analyzed by the author. Bellezza describes the vast network of castles, temples, megaliths, necropolises, and rock art established on the highest and now depopulated part of the Tibetan plateau. He relates literary tales of priests and priestesses, horned deities, and the celestial afterlife to the actual archaeological evidence, providing a fascinating perspective on the origins and development of civilization. The story builds to the present by following the colorful culture of the herders of Upper Tibet, an ancient people whose way of life is endangered by modern development. Tracing Bellezza’s epic journeys across lands where few Westerners have ventured, this book provides a compelling window into the most inaccessible reaches of Tibet and a civilization that flourished long before Buddhism took root.
Download or read book Magic and Mystery in Tibet written by Madame Alexandra David-Neel and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-04-27 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practicing Buddhist and Oriental linguist recounts supernatural events she witnessed in Tibet during the 1920s. Intelligent and witty, she describes the fantastic effects of meditation and shamanic magic — levitation, telepathy, more. 32 photographs.
Download or read book Child of Tibet written by Soname Yangchen and published by Piatkus Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tells the remarkable story of Soname's triumph over adversity, told against the backdrop of a turbulent and dangerous Tibet. Soname was born in the harsh Tibetan countryside during the Chinese occupation. When she was just sixteen Soname risked death in a freedom trek across the Himalayas, finally arriving in Dharamsala, home in exile of the Dalai Lama. Even after managing to escape from Tibet, she faced further dangers and heartache in India, being forced by destitution to give her daughter away. Soname later managed to reach England, where she met and married an Englishman and came to live in Brighton. Her hidden talent was discovered when she sang a traditional Tibetan song at a wedding reception, unaware that a member of a famous band was a guest. Concerts followed. Tracing her long-lost daughter has long been Soname's preoccupation, and it is hoped that her daughter will finally join her in England later this year. Hers is a story of immense will, unbelievable courage and, above all, an indomitable soaring free spirit.
Download or read book China and Tibet written by Tsering Topgyal and published by Hurst & Company. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over sixty years of violence and dialogue have brought China and the Tibetans no closer to a resolution of their conflict. Tsering Topgyal argues that it is China's sense of insecurity, its perception of itself as a socio-politically weak state, which has disproportionately influenced its policies towards the religion, language, education and economy of Tibet. Beijing has also denied the existence of a 'Tibet Issue' and rejected several Tibetan proposals for autonomy, fearful that they might undermine its state-building project in Tibet. Conversely, Tibetan insecurity about threats to their identity, generated by Chinese policies, Han migration and cultural influences in Tibet, explains both the Dalai Lama's unpopular decision to abandon his aspiration for Tibetan independence and his demands for autonomy and unification of all Tibetans under one administration. Identity insecurity also drives the multi-faceted Tibetan resistance both inside Tibet and in the diaspora. Thus, while Beijing and the Tibetans seek to harden their positions in order to counter their respective insecurities, real or imagined, the outcome is, paradoxically, greater insecurity on both sides, plunging them into unremitting cycles of state-hardening on the part of China and fortifying resistance on the Tibetan side.
Download or read book India China and Tibet written by Rakhee Viswambharan and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the 70-year-old peaceful struggle for autonomy/independence of the Tibetan Buddhist living in the 'Roof of the World', Tibet. In 1950, Tibet, an erstwhile independent entity intermittently under the suzerainty of China, was coercively annexed by the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is located in the Himalayan region bordering India and the PRC, the two major players in Asia. The book describes the contemporary history of Tibet and analyses the implications of autonomy especially in the context of geostrategic significance of Tibet to India and China. The response of the PRC and India towards Tibetan autonomy is very important to understand the undercurrents of international relations in the Himalayas. Concomitantly in the 21st century the international response is also significant in helping the move towards autonomy to erstwhile groups of people that have a common cultural identity. The relative significance of the right of a modern state to territorial integrity and people's right of self-determination are discussed in detail. Though people's right to self-determination has been an internationally recognised principle, its implementation depends on the persistence of the struggle for autonomy/independence, the means adopted, and the international response toward it. The interplay of international politics with national interests of major players in the era of globalisation is also dealt with. Thus, in the era of human security and human rights, the Tibetan quest for autonomy has solicited great significance.
Download or read book Tibetan Pastoralists and Development written by Andreas Gruschke and published by Dr Ludwig Reichert. This book was released on 2017 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Tibetan plateau constitutes the world's vastest high-altitude rangeland. It has featured a unique pastoralist culture where, based on yak and sheep production, on complex exchange systems with agricultural areas and the lowlands, and in the context of ever-changing political conditions, pastoralists developed livelihood systems that helped them adapt not only to the harsh environmental conditions, but also to the ever-changing political and economic trends. The 20th century, most prominently the plateau's ever closer integration into the Chinese state, has brought profound changes to pastoral Tibetans. It has opened the plateau to the influence of a wide array of policies directed at 'developing', modernizing, and recently urbanizing the Tibetan pastoral areas. It has also connected even the remotest community to the booming Chinese markets and - indirectly - the world market. Pastoral communities, thus, are being opened up to new economic opportunities, exposed to new risks and integrated into increasingly complex commodity chains. Local consequences of climate change, the demographic transition, new lifestyles and consumption patterns, and new forms of wealth/poverty and social polarization further complicate the picture. The present volume discusses the question of possible futures of Tibetan pastoralism. Taking a perspective informed by the 'Sustainable Livelihood' approach, it presents a selection of current perspectives on these recent transformations and on their specific impact on local pastoral livelihoods on the ground. Its fifteen chapters, written by Tibetan, Han Chinese and Western scholars from the social and environmental sciences, offer field-work based local case studies that illustrate the complex roles of the (Chinese) state, of (new) markets, and of rangeland resources in the making of both the present and the future of the plateau's pastoral livelihoods.
Download or read book The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying written by Sogyal Rinpoche and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 25th Anniversary Edition Over 3 Million Copies Sold 'I couldn't give this book a higher recommendation' BILLY CONNOLLY Written by the Buddhist meditation master and popular international speaker Sogyal Rinpoche, this highly acclaimed book clarifies the majestic vision of life and death that underlies the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It includes not only a lucid, inspiring and complete introduction to the practice of meditation, but also advice on how to care for the dying with love and compassion, and how to bring them help of a spiritual kind. But there is much more besides in this classic work, which was written to inspire all who read it to begin the journey to enlightenment and so become 'servants of peace'.
Download or read book An Atlas of the Tibetan Plateau written by Michael Farmer and published by Brill's Tibetan Studies Librar. This book was released on 2022-02 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Atlas shows for the first time the contemporary geography of the entire Tibetan Plateau, an area where major powers (China, India and Pakistan) meet in the highest landscape on earth, originally occupied by the unique, ancient Buddhist civilisation of Tibet.
Download or read book Seven Years in Tibet written by Heinrich Harrer and published by Tarcher. This book was released on 1982 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this vivid memoir that has sold millions of copies worldwide, Heinrich Harrer recounts his adventures as one of the first Europeans ever to enter Tibet. Harrer was traveling in India when the Second World War erupted. He was subsequently seized and imprisoned by British authorities. After several attempts, he escaped and crossed the rugged, frozen Himalayas, surviving by duping government officials and depending on the generosity of villagers for food and shelter.Harrer finally reached his ultimate destination-the Forbidden City of Lhasa-without money, or permission to be in Tibet. But Tibetan hospitality and his own curious appearance worked in Harrer's favor, allowing him unprecedented acceptance among the upper classes. His intelligence and European ways also intrigued the young Dalai Lama, and Harrer soon became His Holiness's tutor and trusted confidant. When the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, Harrer and the Dalai Lama fled the country together.This timeless story illuminates Eastern culture, as well as the childhood of His Holiness and the current plight of Tibetans. It is a must-read for lovers of travel, adventure, history, and culture. A motion picture, under the direction of Jean-Jacques Annaud, will feature Brad Pitt in the lead role of Heinrich Harrer.
