In My Tibetan Chldhood, Naktsang Nulo recalls his life in Tibet's Amdo region during the 1950s. From the perspective of himself at age ten, he describes his upbringing as a nomad on Tibet's eastern plateau. He depicts pilgrimages to monasteries, including a 1500-mile horseback expedition his family made to and from Lhasa. A year or so later, they attempted that same journey as they fled from advancing Chinese troops. Naktsang's father joined and was killed in the little-known 1958 Amdo rebellion against the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the armed branch of the Chinese Communist Party. During the next year, the author and his brother were imprisoned in a camp where, after the onset of famine, very few children survived.
The real significance of this episodic narrative is the way it shows, through the eyes of a child, the suppressed histories of China's invasion of Tibet. The author's matter-of-fact accounts cast the atrocities that he relays in stark relief. Remarkably, Naktsang lived to tell his tale. His book was published in 2007 in China, where it was a bestseller before the Chinese government banned it in 2010. It is the most reprinted modern Tibetan literary work. This translation makes a fascinating if painful period of modern Tibetan history accessible in English.
- Contents
- Foreword by the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso
- Foreword by Ralph Litzinger
- Introduction. A Note on Context and Significance by Robert Barnett
- Translators’ Note
- Author’s Preface
- Prelude. The Charnel Ground
- Chapter One. Born on the Wide Tibetan Grasslands
- Chapter Two. A Childhood with Herdsmen, Bandits, and Monks
- Chapter Three. By Yak Caravan to the Holy City of Lhasa
- Chapter Four. Witness to Massacre on Our Tragic Journey through Desolate Places
- Chapter Five. Torture and Imprisonment, Starvation and Survival
- Appendix. Guide to Abridgment and Chapter Changes from Original
- Glossary
- Index
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