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Summary: Bearing witness to one of the greatest post-war 20th century crimes against humanity
Comment: Palden Gyatso relates his fascinating story of his life, as a Tibetan monk and his 33 years in a hellish Chinese Communist prison, where he was, starved, subjected to horrific tortures, leading to irreversible physical damage and barbaric reeducation classes.
Born in the Tibetan village of Panam in 1933 he entered the Gadong monastery at the age of ten, and during the Chinese invasion of Tibet he was fully ordained as a monk.
Arrested by the Chinese, along with thousands of monks and nuns,during his hellish incarceration from 1959 to 1992, he saw the destruction by the Chinese Communists of the Tibetan people and their culture and religion.
Monasteries were destroyed, books burned and thousands of Tibetans arrested and executed by the Commuinist Chinese determined to destroy everything of Tibetan identity and culture, and replace it with Chinese Communism.
Of the group of monks Palden was ordained with he was the only one that survived.
By the time Palden was arrested the Chinese had woven a strangling web around Tibet, and the hapless Tibetan people could do nothing about it.
Palden describes the barbarous "struggle sessions" in which thousands were murdered or beaten to death, the Chinese propaganda that turned reality inside out, claming they were "freeing"' the Tibetan people from "Feudalism" and forcing them to abandon " the four olds "- their culture, customs, habits and thoughts.
Ii is horrific to read of the Communist Chinese prison methods.
On a brief leave, during 1983, shortly before being re arrested, Palden describes the sight of thousands of Tibetan children starving to death as a result of the famine deliberately created by the Chinese to subjugate the Tibetan people,
Many children from the wrong "class backgrounds" were deliberately starved to death by the Communist authorities.
Thousands of arrested nuns were stripped, humiliated and often raped by the Chinese Communists.
China and it's apologists claim that China introduced progress to Tibet and freed it's people from "feudalism".
It does not matter to them that the Tibetan people did not want any part of Communist 'progress' and were happy with the life they lived before the Chinese invasion and genocide.
After his release in 1992, Palden went into exile and swore to bear testament to the crimes of Communist China against the Tibetan people.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Read this book, then pass it on!
Comment: A real eye opener. Brutal, tear-rending revelations of how one portion of humanity is treating another, told with a steady and enlightened perspective. A very valuable piece of biography that every public library would benefit from holding. Read this book and you will be an instant convert to the Tibetan cause. Don't be surprised if you want to pass it on to others as soon as you finish the last page.
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Summary: An eye-opener that leads you to want to know more
Comment: This is the compelling story of the life of Palden Gyatso, of which over 30 years was spent in Chinese prisons. It is also the story of China's invasion, occupation, and transformation of Tibet, albeit mainly from behind bars.
It reminds me of Primo Levi's 'If This Is A Man', the account of his time in the Nazi concentration camps. Gyatso suffers because of his religious beliefs, as well as his refusal to 'reform' to communist ways.
What is most amazing is the apparent belief of the Chinese authorities that a culture could simply be 'educated' into a different way of living; that those who resisted could, by brute force, be persuaded to change their beliefs. But then, a similar process of 'education' is no doubt going on in the world now, as nations try to 'democratise' countries they occupy.
Unlike Primo Levi, however, Gyatso's book seems to be missing an element of self-reflection. In under 240 pages you get a strong sense of events and terrible cruelty, but only briefly does he mention that he too had to denounce his fellow prisoners. Nowhere does he address the problems of the feudal system that the Chinese so hated. I get the impression that in trying to make a case for a free Tibet, the story has been trimmed of some of the nuances that might have made it less a story, and more enlightening. Having said that, it certainly is an eye-opener, and inspires you to find out more about the recent histories of Tibet, China and Asia in general.
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Summary: Shocking But True
Comment: I could not put this book down once I started reading it. The account is clear and succint enough to put tears into the eyes of readers. China can take (by force) tibet but not its people and the culture and spirit of the Tibetans.
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Summary: FREE TIBET NOW!
Comment: This book goes some way towards informing the western reader of the suffering that Tibet has suffered at the hands of the chinese, who have systematically dismantled Tibetan Buddhism and culture and massacred her people. As an aside, I find the West's reaction to Saddam Hussain's regime in Iraq and specifically his invasion of Kuwait (upon which Iraq had legitimate claim; a fact I never read in the Western press!) quite remarkable, in view of the fact that they stood by and watched whilst China raped Tibet, both literally and metaphorically. I suppose Tibet has no oil and China were a little too big to bully!The immensely rich Tibetan culture, as it existed fifty-five years ago is on the verge of extinction, but just like some rare bird can be saved by some direct action followed by many years of nurturing. Contact your government now and lobby them to take action against China's continuing illegal occupation of Tibet. With regard to our own Queen's recent refusal to meet the Dalai Lama; she should hang her head in shame! Protest when and wherever you can. In response to the Chinese reviewer, no I don't take your comments seriously. Maybe you think you speak the truth, but I'm afraid it's the truth of Chinese indoctrination and propaganda.
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