Eat the Buddha Life and Death in a Tibetan Town

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

An unprecedented exploration of contemporary Tibet, one of the world's most inaccessible places, geographically and politically, and one of its most misunderstood.

A gripping portrait of contemporary Tibet, from the bestselling author of Nothing to Envy.

In the 1930s Mao's Red Army fled to the Tibetan plateau to escape their adversaries in the Chinese Civil War. By the time the soldiers reached remote Ngaba, they were so hungry that they looted monasteries and ate religious statues made of flour and butter-to Tibetans, it was as if they were eating the Buddha. These experiences would make the town a hotbed of Tibetan resistance for decades to come, culminating in shocking acts of self-immolation in recent years.

Eat the Buddha chronicles the tragic history of modern Tibet through the lives of award-winning journalist Barbara Demick's subjects. Among them are a princess whose family is wiped out during the Cultural Revolution, a young nomad who becomes radicalised in a monastery, and a schoolgirl forced to choose between her family and the lure of Chinese money.

Illuminating a society long romanticised as deeply spiritual, Demick reveals what it is like to be Tibetan today, trying to preserve one's culture, faith and language against the depredations of a seemingly unstoppable, all-seeing.

'Masterly...Demick covers an awe-inspiring breadth of history... Her method is programmatic openness, deep listening, a willingness to be waylaid; the effect, a prismatic picture of history as experienced and understood by individuals in their full amplitude and idiosyncrasy.' New York Times

'You simply cannot understand China without reading Barbara Demick on Tibet. Her work is fair-minded, chilling, awe-inspiringly rigorous, and as vivid as cinema. Eat the Buddha is a warning to anyone who tries to analyze China through its cities: you will misread the future if you overlook the war over diversity and the struggles for cultural survival.' Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition

'Barbara Demick's new book is essential reading for anyone interested in China and Tibet. The reporting is rich, the writing is beautiful, and the stories will stay with you. I couldn't put it down.' John Pomfret, author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9781925498783
Published: August 2020

Number of pages: 352
Width: 155 mm
Height: 234 mm
Depth: 25 mm

Publisher: Text Publishing