In Exile From The Land Of Snows

For over 2000 years, Tibet held itself aloof from the affairs of the world. Perched at 15,000 feet, in the shadow of the Himalayas, it was a feudal kingdom of peasants and Buddhist monks, nomads and aristocrats, whose temporal and spiritual leader was the Dalai Lama. In Exile from the Land of Snows gives us, for the first time, a complete and graphic account of how this tranquil, isolated nation was wrenched into the nightmares of the twentieth century and how her patient, gentle and courageous people have resisted their fate.

The story begins in 1950, when Tibet is invaded by the newly triumphant People's Liberation Army of Communist China. Routing the meager Tibetan forces in three weeks, the Chinese compel the most recent Dalai Lama, just turned sixteen, to administer a puppet government under their tutelage. "Democratic reforms" follow that strip the inhabitants of their land, their property and all other human rights. Revolt is inevitable, and, in 1959, following a massive uprising in Lhasa, the capital, the Dalai Lama is forced to seek refuge in India.

What happens next is completely unexpected. The Dalai Lama and the 100,000 exiles who eventually join him do more than survive; they flourish, giving new life to their unique heritage and holding fast to their dreams of a free and independent Tibet. Working feverishly, they scratch farms out of jungle, build libraries and monasteries, create an independent school system and establish a democratic government-in-exile.

John F. Avedon tells us the story in terms of its central people...a young man who was a destitute refugee at the age of ten and who has since risen to the highest circles of the exile government....another who was trained by the CIA (in Colorado) to wage guerrilla war against the Chinese... the State Oracle, whose gifts of prophecy and vision are consulted on all matters of policy...a doctor of Tibetan medicine who has, single-handedly, preserved the ancient teachings of his extraordinary science...and, most revealingly, the son of peasants, the Dalai Lama himself, whose birth and destiny were foreseen, the compassionate overseer of all their efforts.

Those they struggle for - the millions who have remained in Tibet - have endured torture, imprisonment, forced labor brigades, brutal "re-education" classes, famine and the hysteria of the Cultural Revolution. They have seen their religion desecrated and their land transformed into a fortress state studded with military installations, including China's largest nuclear missile base. And we are witness to their story as well-through the accounts of the Dalai Lama's personal physician (who was punished for his "crimes" by twenty-one years in Chinese prison camps) and those of the Tibetan representatives Peking has allowed to visit their homeland since the death of Mao and the purge of the Gang of Four.

Despite all their efforts, the Chinese have failed to subdue the Tibetans, and, as this book amply documents, they know it. Thus, in 1978, they began to make overtures to the Dalai Lama, gestures that have led to negotiations for his possible return and to his announcement early in 1983, vividly portrayed in the closing pages, that he will visit Tibet in 1985.

Most of the material in this book-the triumphs of the exiles, the devastation wrought by the Chinese, the inner workings of Tibetan Buddhism-has never before been made known. Certainly no other writer has been closer to this unique story, a story filled with tragedy, but suffused with a rare sense of resilience and hope.

Author: John F. Avedon

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Released Date: 1984

ISBN: 9780394518176