Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer: No doubt that "Seven Years in Tibet" is an intimate portrait. A careful re-read will show an almost Indiana Jones quality to the book. Despite the objections to the contrary, Heinrich Harrer is a storyteller -- and a good one. I have to admit to ann almost subjective experience with the book. I found my original copy (which I gave away as a gift) in a small store in Dharamsala in India. It was a close companion and source of solace at a time and in a place that was alien to me. I am certain that Harrer felt the same way when he was interned in India in 1939. Harrer escaped only to find himself in Tibet. The narrative of the escape is the stuff of legend is revisited in detail in the book and in the movie with Brad Pitt (also available on Amazon.com). However, I do have to caution the reader -- it is a European perspective and almost flirts with a benign sense of condescension. In an odd sort of way, Harrer is almost neo-imperialist. He is a mountain climber so he is no stranger to survival and unique cultures. It is a rounded account of the Tibetans and could only be told by one who lived among them. Was he able to penetrate the veil? Only you the reader will be able to ascertain that one. Harrer has interesting impressions of both His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Oracle. If you asked them, I am certain the story would be different. Tibetans as a people have as much right to a sense of self determination as anyone. Their cause will not be furthered by infusing a sense of noble subject or a sense of idealized Shangri-La. Thanks goodness Harrer does fall into this trap and I need to give him props for that. It is a read that I never tire of even a second or a third time.

Tibet - Cry of the Snow Lion: Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion is an astonishing documentary concerning the near-destruction of Tibetan culture, the suffering of the people, and the will to survive. Director and cinematographer Tom Peosay should be applauded for his efforts and results - he has created an amazing pedagogical tool. Sections of the documentary draw our attention to the plight of the Tibetan people and their ongoing struggles under Chinese Communist oppression. According to Robert Thurman, pre-occupation Tibet was a Buddhist theocracy, a country that invested 85% of its national budget to support monastic universities. Once again, to borrow from Thurman, it would be the equivalent to the entire U.S. defense budget going into education so as to develop "enlightened people." According to this documentary, because the monasteries also controlled the land, when the Chinese "liberated" Tibet, the religious sector was marked for destruction. The wicked opening sequence uses exceptional archival and undercover footage covering the Lhasa demonstrations of 1987. In this same incident, Jampa Tenzin was severely burned while attempting to rescue monks from a burning police station where they were being held. Ironically, although he was hailed as a hero for his courage the time, he was eventually detained by the Chinese, tortured, and finally killed. As the documentary shows, the Dalai Lama is still the most credible spokesperson for the suffering of his people. Continuously, the Dalai Lama points to the fact that he holds no hatred for the Chinese oppressors. To the contrary, he sees them as teachers who encourage him to the spiritual practice of compassion. The Dalai Lama's proposal that Tibet become a demilitarized "Zone of Peace" seems both creative and sound - but does not seem to hold much currency to the Chinese who wish to strip Tibet of its natural resources. Moreover, even if the Chinese have rebuilt several monasteries - after destroying most of them - they are constantly trying to remove any memory of the Dalai Lama. China's latest method of stamping out Tibetan religion and culture sustained program of ethnic cleansing that includes the construction of a railroad that will speed up populating the area with ethnic Han Chinese. The documentary reveals how this demographic shift has impacted Lhasa altering the landscape with large apartment complexes, brothels, and Western style stores. For those of us who seem to plead for authentic - allow us to explain that this is not a defense of a primordial, essential, or uniquely unique Tibet. It is, however, a revolutionary disruption that is both unwelcome and unsuccessful. Cultures come and go but it is up to the participants within that culture to decide what is beneficial or not - and should never be imposed and violence I find difficult to understand despite the humanist agenda of communism. There is wrong, and there is wrong, and there is what the Chinese are doing in Tibet. For those tourists who visited Tibet and where enchanted by what seemed normal and espouse a belief that perhaps Tibetans should just follow Chinese edicts - think again - as this documentary points out, many Tibetans are unemployed and live in poverty. With their religion and culture under siege, Tibetans have little to cling to except hope that one day they will have self-determination.