STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET CAME UP WITH THE LATEST SUMMER READING LIST, WHICH I FEEL ALL SHOULD READ IF NOT ALL BUT SOME AT LEAST. HAPPY READING!!
The summer months are a perfect time to catch up on your reading. Get absorbed in some of our favorite books and be fascinated by these stories and lessons about Tibet, China and strategic nonviolence. I promise you, these books are way more interesting than the college text books, and tons more intriguing than the office memos!
In September 2006, Kelsang Namtso was just a few hundred steps from freedom when she was shot to death on the Namtso Pass between Tibet and Nepal by China's border patrol. Beijing quickly tried to bury the story, but thanks to this book the heartbreaking story of Kelsang and her friend Dolma has come to life in vivid detail. This book, well researched and skillfully written, is a must-read for anyone who wants to know why or how Tibetans, including children, cross the highest mountains in the world risking their lives every year. Who are they running from? Where are they escaping to? Who makes it to the other side? Who dies in the snow? Through the highest form of investigative journalism, Jonathan Green delivers the answers. The paperback version of this book was just released and is now available for purchase.
TIBET'S TRUE HEARD: SELECTED POEMS - by Woeser
There are many layers of irony to the fact that the most famous
contemporary Tibetan poet and blogger happens to write only in Chinese. One can only imagine Beijing's horror at how its campaign to assimilate Tibet has created a new generation of Tibetans who use the language of the oppressor as a tool to fight for their rights. Woeser's poetry, a window into the beautiful yet bruised heart of Tibet, sings about the yearning and the sorrows and the occasional laughter in the alleyways of Lhasa, the memories of the dead, and the resilient hopes of the living. Following the 2008 Uprising in Tibet, through her blog posts and essays, Woeser became the most consummate reporter on China's crackdown in Tibet and the most brave and eloquent spokesperson on the Tibetan people's struggle for their rights.
FROM DICTATORSHIP TO DEMOCRACY - by Gene Sharp
This book is the bible -- or the Dhamapada -- for those seeking political liberation through nonviolent action. If Gandhi can be credited with perfecting the art of nonviolent resistance, Gene Sharp can be credited with turning this art into a science. In this thin but groundbreaking book, Gene Sharp uses simple and direct language to explain what keeps people oppressed and what sets them free. Outlining 198 different nonviolent tactics, it's as if Dr. Sharp had opened the door to an endless arsenal of nonviolent tools and strategies that can be employed on any battlefield. This book is a must-read for any one who believes nonviolence can triumph over violence and wants to help make it happen. A Tibetan translation is available here: http://sft.convio.net/site/R?i=8UO0nvtxSlOidsiRFXsuUA..
WHY THE DALAI LAMA MATTERS - by Robert Thurman
Aside from being America's most eloquent exponent of Buddhism, Dr. Thurman
is a staunch supporter of the Tibetan cause and fierce critic of China's occupation of Tibet. In this book, he talks about the Dalai Lama's various manifestations as a "Buddhist monk, a teacher, philosopher, scientist and the political representative of the Tibetan people..." writes Publisher Weekly. With penetrating insight and intimacy, Dr.Thurman writes about the Dalai Lama's effort to solve the Tibet issue, "while espousing love, altruism and spirituality as the forces that will lead mankind into a kinder, happier twenty-first century."
FIRE UNDER THE SNOW - by Palden Gyatso
Palden Gyatso, who spent 33 years as a political prisoner of China, has the piercing gaze and the haunting face that testify to years of torture, hard labor and solitary confinement. But the minute he breaks into a smile, all the sorrow on his face melts away beneath a singular undying hope of a free Tibet. "Fire Under the Snow" is Palden's autobiographical story as told to the scholar Tsering Shakya. No story better symbolizes the tragic destruction inflicted by the Chinese government on Tibet than Palden's own life.
THE STRUGGLE FOR TIBET - by Tsering Shakya and Wang Lixiong
The most important documented contemporary exchange between Tibet and China, this book is a conversation through essays between Tibet's foremost historian Tsering Shakya and Chinese intellectual Wang Lixiong. Underlining the tension between the role of religion versus the role of colonialism in Tibet, the essays paint a fascinating portrait of the evolution of Wang Lixiong's views and the nuanced but powerful intellectual arguments presented by Shakya.
SMALL ACTS OF RESISTANCE - by Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson
Thanks to the media's dramatization of freedom struggles and the sacrifices associated with them, we often forget that some of the most successful nonviolent revolutions were steered to victory by ordinary people engaging in simple acts of defiance and mischief. This book is a glimpse into how tyrannical dictatorships in dozens of countries were taunted, ridiculed, satirized and eventually defeated by the irreverent humor and creativity of people who refused to be terrorized.
THE CHINA FANTASY - by James Mann
A scathing critique of America's China policy, James Mann questions the fundamental assumptions upon which the US government's appeasement of China is based. He argues that the American public's serious concern about human rights violations abroad and employment rates at home are overshadowed by multinational corporations' greed for market, often aided by the corporate influence on the media that mislead the public into falsely believing that economic progress in China will automatically lead to political reform.
RULES OF THE HOUSE - by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
After half a century in exile, a new generation of Tibetans is using the power of language to reflect on Tibetan identify and to express our experiences, our longing for a home, and to record our hopes for the future. Leading this new generation of Tibetan writers in exile is critically acclaimed poet and author, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa. In "Rules of the House," Dhompa provides the reader with a unique perspective of life as a Tibetan growing up in India and Nepal and her poems bring to life the Tibetan diaspora's effort to negotiate one's sense of place, language, culture and identity.
Credit goes to Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) for choosing the list of wonderful books to read this summer.
