Eating Buddha: A City's Glimpse into Tibet's Catastrophe and Survival

EAT THE BUDDHA: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town

Following the bestseller "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea,"
Award-winning journalist Barbara Demick once again fearlessly reveals the true face of an autocratic regime!!
This time, Demick delves deep into one of the most impenetrable places in China,
investigating what has become of Tibetans living under the Chinese government's strict surveillance? What exactly is China so eager to conceal?
"What kind of regime is the CCP exactly?
If you haven't read this work, don't claim to truly understand China."
──Evan Osnos
 
 
▶▶▶Ngaba, a small Tibetan town located in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is where Tibetans first clashed with the Communist Party,
and today it is a place heavily suppressed by Chinese authorities and riddled with surveillance.

In the 1930s, Mao Zedong's Red Army fled to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and upon reaching Ngaba,
the soldiers, due to extreme hunger, ransacked local temples and ate small Buddha statues made of flour and yak butter.
They were, in fact, eating Buddhas. They knew they were desecrating the sacred beliefs of Tibetans, but they didn't care.
Since then, every decade or so, Ngaba has seen fierce anti-government protests,
and the wave of self-immolations completely shattered the CCP's claim that Tibetans were happy under Chinese rule.
This place has become a thorn in the authorities' side…

※This book was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times!
The Washington Post, The Economist, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Outside, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, NPR… all praise it!

※Tashi Tsering, President of the Tibet Taiwan Human Rights Connection | Li Peng-hsuan, Tibet and Tibetan activist | Freddy Lim, Legislator and lead singer of Chthonic | Yeh Hao, Associate Professor of Political Science at National Chengchi University | Yen Che-ya, Author and publisher | Lan Hsian, Veteran media personality and host of Zhongguang Lan Hsian Time… all highly recommend it!

The situation faced by Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Hongkongers today has long been experienced by Tibetans.

Shortly after the signing of the Seventeen-Point Agreement, the Chinese government quickly broke its promise of "one country, two systems" and high autonomy, ruthlessly depriving Tibetans of their land, faith, culture, and memory. The destruction inflicted on Tibet far outweighed any creation. In the 1950s and 60s, the number of deaths caused by the CCP's suppression of the resistance movement in eastern Tibet was even greater than the Nanjing Massacre, for which China repeatedly demands apologies from Japan! And those hundreds of thousands of "separatists" who perished undoubtedly became non-existent figures in official discourse; not to mention that Tibetans also endured Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward, dying in prison, from starvation, executed in purges and tortures, and losing their lives in labor camps. Their suffering was worse than that of Han Chinese, not only were they subjected to abuse earlier, but also for a longer duration.

Older generations of Tibetans shed blood in fierce resistance against the invasion of the "Liberation Army." Younger generations of Tibetans, under the immense power of the Communist Party, remember the Dalai Lama's non-violent philosophy—they couldn't bear to kill others, only themselves—using self-immolation as a heavy protest against the CCP's high-pressure rule. It has become increasingly difficult for Chinese propagandists to claim that Tibetans are happy, as self-immolation incidents occur one after another, completely unstoppable.

Mao Zedong once told the Dalai Lama, "Religion is poison." Systematically eliminating the Tibetan language was necessary, building modern model cities was necessary, and even more so, encouraging them to display portraits of Xi Jinping and the Chinese flag in their homes; the Party is your only God. The Communist Party, fearing the power of religion, has spared no effort, on its 100th anniversary, to downplay the importance of Buddhist faith in Tibetan life, thereby weakening the Dalai Lama's influence.
　
China is becoming the perfect dictator. The level of fear among Tibetans today is comparable to what the author witnessed in North Korea. Barbara Demick, the Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, spent several years delving into Ngaba, Chengdu, Lhasa, Lixian, Jiuzhaigou, Nanjing, the China-Nepal border, Dharamsala in India, and other places, personally interviewing the Dalai Lama and dozens of Tibetans, and verifying each account, portraying the most authentic situation in Tibet under the oppression of the world's most powerful government.

　　● This book's narrative spans decades of modern Tibetan and Chinese history, recounted through the characters in Demick's writing:
　　A princess whose home was raided during the Cultural Revolution; young wandering Tibetans who became radicalized at the famous Kirti Monastery;
　　An aspiring entrepreneur who fell in love with a Chinese woman; a poet and intellectual who bravely resisted at the risk of his life;
　　A young Tibetan female student forced from a young age to choose between family and the elusive temptation of Chinese money…

　　They are all ordinary people, they just want to live normal, happy lives in their homeland,
　　without having to make difficult choices between faith, family, and country.

　　They all face the same dilemma:
　　Should they resist China, or join China?
　　Should they follow the compassion and non-violence taught by Buddhism, or rise up in rebellion?

Westerners have long imagined Tibetan culture as one full of spirituality and peace. Demick uncovers this long-standing misconception, offering insight into the true face of Tibetans in the 21st century. Today's Tibetans suffer depredation from an irresistible, omnipotent superpower, yet they still strive to protect their culture, faith, and language. Demick's descriptions are meticulous and unadorned, at times shocking and unforgettable.

【Praise】
★ "Demick, in her reporting on 21st-century Tibet, adds a rare human dimension, including how the legacy of older generations' resistance sparked self-immolation protests among the young, and how Tibetans live under the Chinese government's strict surveillance, enduring various sufferings and contradictions that are almost invisible to the outside world." ──Booklist Magazine

★ "Brilliantly executed… This book not only describes modern Tibet but also helps explain the dire current situation in China." ──Financial Times

★ "This moving and excellent book offers a unique perspective on Tibet's plight. It guides readers to understand the feelings of Tibetans inexplicably tormented in a political storm they neither wanted nor understood." ──Daily Mail

★ "This deeply researched book tells the story of that beautiful part of eastern Tibet, the legendary location of the Myangs Kingdom… Tibetans thrived in that magnificent environment for thousands of years, yet in the past seventy years, they have been invaded and colonized by the Chinese Communist Party and suffered devastation. Demick's fearless portrayal deserves the highest honors. Readers can feel the dramatic changes in the lives of her extraordinary subjects through their true stories." ──Robert A. F. Thurman, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University

★ "You cannot truly understand China without reading Demick's depiction of Tibet. Her work is fair, chilling, rigorously written, awe-inspiring, and cinematically vivid, leaping off the page." ──Evan Osnos, author of "Age of Ambition"

★ "Demick has written a poignant story about a front-line town on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau that became a base of resistance. With the profound touch of a novelist, through uniquely meticulous research, she reminds us of the enduring power of memory, exposing those untold histories." ──Tsering Shakya, renowned Tibetan historian, author of "The Dragon in the Land of Snows"

★ "Anyone interested in China and Tibet should not miss Demick's new book. It is richly reported, beautifully written, and tells profound stories that are hard to put down." ──John Pomfret, former Beijing Bureau Chief of The Washington Post, author of "The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom"

★ "Demick opens her heart to experience, listens deeply, takes risks, and sketches a vibrant historical picture from the rich personal experiences and insights of many individuals." ──Parul Sehgal, book critic, The New York Times

2021-07-01

麥田

384

9786263100176