Hard Truths

For all those remotely interested in Tibet, -modern-day activists who (sometimes blindly) espouse the Tibetan cause, historians, academics, and particularly those second-generation Tibetans in exile, who've grown up on grandmother's tales about an ancient and peaceful civilisation that's being brutally mauled by the rabid Chinese-this book should be an eye-opener. For here, Tsering's tried to burst the "political myth-making" by both sides which nowadays masquerades as different versions of history.

Tibet was no land of perpetual peace and happiness before the Chinese invasion, but nor was it "the hell on earth ravaged by feudal exploitation" of Chinese propaganda. And it's this "denial of history" that Tsering attempts, ruthlessly, to correct. In the process, he spares no one: Tibetan collaborators, the Chinese, the British, and later, the Americans and the Indians, who still use Tibet for their own short-term political ends.

It's also a book that disproves the popular notion that any book on Tibet written by a Tibetan would obviously be full of deep-rooted biases and prejudices. For Tsering has obviously taken great pains to ensure that his perspective is as balanced, well researched and holistic as possible. Add to that the fact that despite being written by a Tibetan, there is an amazing lack of rancour, and you have a book that is as definitive as one gets on the subject.