The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering - Hardcover

Goldstein, Melvyn C.; Siebenschuh, William R; Tsering, Tashi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1563249502 ISBN 13: 9781563249501

Publisher: Routledge, 1997

Synopsis

This captivating autobiography by a Tibetan educator and former political prisoner is full of twists and turns. Born in 1929 in a Tibetan village, Tsering developed a strong dislike of his country's theocratic ruling elite. As a 13-year-old member of the Dalai Lama's personal dance troupe, he was frequently whipped or beaten by teachers for minor infractions. A heterosexual, he escaped by becoming a drombo, or homosexual passive partner and sex-toy, for a well-connected monk. After studying at the University of Washington, he returned to Chinese-occupied Tibet in 1964, convinced that Tibet could become a modernized society based on socialist, egalitarian principles only through cooperation with the Chinese. Denounced as a 'counterrevolutionary' during Mao's Cultural Revolution, he was arrested in 1967 and spent six years in prison or doing forced labor in China. Officially exonerated in 1978, Tsering became a professor of English at Tibet University in Lhasa. He now raises funds to build schools in Tibet's villages, emphasizing Tibetan language and culture.

About this title

From Library Journal:

The considerable value of Tashi's briskly told life story is that it complicates our view of modern Tibet. Born in a Tibetan village in 1929, Tashi wrested the opportunity to study in India and the United States before returning to China in 1964 against the advice of his friends. A freethinking liberal and patriot, he mistrusted the Tibetan government-in-exile and naively viewed the Chinese occupation as an opportunity to modernize his tradition-bound homeland. But he was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution and prevented from returning to Tibet until 1981, when he finally got a university job teaching English. His is a harrowing but remarkably unbitter story with a happy ending for him, if not for Tibet. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.?Steven I. Levine, Boulder Run Research, Hillsborough, N.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review:

"A fascinating account not only of his life's journey, but of 20th-century Tibet's troubled evolution".-- The Wall Street Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1563249502
• ISBN 13: 9781563249501
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 230