
Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town book by Barbara Demick
By Barbara DemickEat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town book by Barbara Demick
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.
Book details
- Hardcover
- 353 pages
- English
- 0812998758
- 9780812998757
About Barbara Demick
barbara demick is the author of nothing to envy: ordinary lives in north korea, which was a finalist for the national book award and national book critics Read More about Barbara Demick
More Books By Barbara Demick
People who bought this also bought
Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant book by Renee Mauborgne
New Book
The Young Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business book by Steve Mariotti
New Book
The Journey: A Practical Guide to Healing Your Life and Setting Yourself Free boo by Brandon Bays
New Book
Dog Palaces: Designer Beds for Pampered Pooches book by Brian Coleman
Used Book
The Secret Life of Queen Victoria: Her Majesty's Missing Diaries book by Jonathan Routh
Used Book
Psycho-Cybernetics: A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life book by Maxwell Maltz
New Book
Are You Kidding Me? : My Life with an Extremely Loud Family, Bathroom Calamities, and Crazy Relatives
Used Book
Working the Clock: How to Win the Race for Productivity and Profits with Workforce Management Technology
Used Book
The Last Word on First Names: The Definitive A-Z Guide to the Best and Worst in Baby Names by America's Leading Experts
Used Book
30 Day Body Purification: How to Cleanse Your Inner Body and Experience the Joys of Toxin-Free Health
Used Book
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln book by Doris Kearns Goodwin
New Book
The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Dave Kerpen
New Book
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven: But Never Dreamed of Asking
Used Book
Cupcakes and Cashmere: A Guide for Defining Your Style, Reinventing Your Space, and Entertaining with Ease book by Emily Schuman
Used Book
Better Homes and Gardens Complete Quick and Easy Cookbook
Used Book
From Cover to Cover : Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books
Used Book
The Power of Resilience: How the Best Companies Manage the Unexpected book by Yossi Sheffi
New Book
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy book by Cathy O'Neil
New Book
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature book by Steven Pinker
New Book