Tibet,Tibet

Barack Obama,who refused to see the Dalai Lama when he was in Washington,is in China. China is more than unhappy that the Tibetan leader is in Arunachal Pradesh. Even if he is planning on just a few days of prayer in a monastery in Tawang,the narrative is never simple when it comes to His Holiness and the Tibetans.

Memories of Life in Lhasa Under Chinese Rule by Tubten Khetsun (Penguin,Rs 450) discusses complex issues by detailing the everyday life of Lhasa. Khetsun was guarding one of the entrances while “all the Chinese army bases and settlements … trained their cannon on the Norbu Lingka summer palace and began to fire” on March 20,1959. His subsequent years in prisons and labour camps,the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965,the Cultural Revolution and the horrific crackdown on the protesting Tibetans form the rest of the book.

In another book,The Tibetan Book of the Dead: AN illustrated edition (Roli,Rs 695),Thomas L. Kelly and Glenn H. Mullin bring alive the Tibetan classic with contemporary photographs and a meditation on life,death and transmigration.