Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History

Through a lyrical narrative of her journey to Tibet in , activist Canyon Sam contemplates modern history from the perspective of Tibetan women. Traveling.
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The book's title comes from the train that runs from Beijing to Lhasa, and as one Tibetan woman jokes: Additionally, the train helps promote tourism to Tibet and, far more damaging, facilitates the mass immigration of Chinese people into Tibet.

When I found out I had won this book through goodreads, I initially thought, "Ha! They must have looked at my shelves. Lo and behold, goodreads uses an algorithm, the main base of which relies on randomness. Out of people, only 2 of us were lucky to win a copy of this book, and I was one of them. And did I mention that I want to go to grad school for Tibetan Studies, and am thinking of doing my thesis on something pertaining to Tibetan women?

If people knew the truth, we believed, they would come forth and intervene. Tibet would be saved. Now Tibet was indeed a household word, but China had imposed its will, transformed it.

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Beyond our worst nightmares. There were too many threads, and it felt that Canyon Sam, to use a cliche, "bit off much more than she could chew. My review is totally going to mirror her book. If the book feels rushed, it is because it IS a rushed topic. Two of the four interviewees are dead now. Om mani padme hum. The older generation of Tibetans--the ones who knew life prior to the Chinese invasion, the ones who bravely protested against the Chinese military forces, the ones who initially fled--are dying.

My students were mostly between the ages of 18 and Some of them, despite "knowing" three or four languages, are not fluent in any of them. A lot of them primarily fled to India to get an education, because Tibetan is not taught in Chinese schools, even if their parents could afford to send them to Chinese schools. When my students speak, their Tibetan is riddled with English; their English is riddled with Tibetan. They joke around in Hindi, and some of them write in Chinese, but none of them have yet mastered a language to fluency.

And female students were largely absent from my classes. There were five in one class, and only two in the final-year class of the college. And only one of those female students was a nun. I was the only female teacher at the college. I, a white Western woman, only had a few women for company, other than my students: When I asked some of the male teachers why they thought this was being the Western feminist I am , I was told, rather smartly, "Well, if they applied, we would probably hire them!

Don't you think we'd actually LIKE more women? In addition to the book feeling rushed, there are these important threads that just sort of dangle in the book. They're important, and they might become your favorite part of the book, but it's hard to ground them in anything in relation to the storyline. More planning could have been done, or at least more delineation from "here in the present" to "author's memory of the first time she interviewed this woman.

I had to break myself away from the book at several points because I couldn't read through my tears, and all she had mentioned was how one woman snuck her a potato while she was fixing dinner! I've tried to talk to other Western women involved in the Tibet cause, and I always end up walking away feeling a little Either they're really actively involved in the Buddhism aspect, or the political aspect, or I just feel like I should shut up about all my little experiences that draw me towards the cause-- that sharing our experiences and ideas is not a part of the connection between us, either as women, as Western women, or Western women who care deeply about Tibet.

As a writer, the moments of absolute humanity I've experienced are what I wish to portray about the Tibetan people, because I'm tired of them either being dragged through the mud or put up on a pedestal.


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I'm tired of the West being gimme-gimme when it comes to Tibet's Dharma teachers, and will never forget what a friend's friend, a nun, told me. She found out that I was teaching English and wanted to learn Tibetan I only know a little , and reached over, grabbed my arm, and said something to me in Tibetan I couldn't understand. My friend knew very little English and struggled with the translation, but together, he and she were finally able to tell me, "You must learn Tibetan. You must translate books We demand the Buddhist philosophy, the spirituality of these people, and in return, we should give them the science we've been privileged enough to dabble in for many centuries.

Canyon Sam is a writer. It's listed first in the back of the book. I am, first and foremost, a writer, too. Thus, I could connect with her more than someone who does not value the precision of words, the subtle gestures of human beings, the strange adventures that befall us on our journey for truth--and the need to take note of all of these things. I love my activist friends, Tibetan and non-Tibetan, but I will always feel separate from them because of my writerly heart.

And here was Canyon-la, with her similar experiences, echoing sentiments I have had all along but have been afraid to admit--ashamed of, in some sense. The experiences range from ama-las "mothers" insisting that I eat an omelete for breakfast, in addition to the bread and tea, because of the stereotype that Americans always eat eggs for breakfast, to being asked if I wanted tea and my saying, "Absolutely! I, too, miss McLeod Ganj, "not the nerve-jangling, crowded, noisy town, but the place it represented.

A void I am trying to stuff with literature about Tibet. I faced this review with a heavier heart than other reviews, and it has been one of the most difficult to write. I feel additional pressure because so many people have added this book to their "to-read" list, unlike some of the other books I have reviewed, such as We Tibetans , an account of Kham, Tibet, pre-Chinese invasion, by a Tibetan woman who married a British man.

That book might remain stuffed away into a corner, but this new book, thanks to the goodreads giveaway, has the real possibility of being read and changing lives. I don't know what to say. I'm not afraid of coming on too strong, but I don't know what strings to pull to get your attention. To get you to research Tibet, to educate yourself, to read this book.

I'm not satisfied with any approach, because I feel that the Tibet issue is so important that we must utilize ALL approaches. The torture victims must have space in order to tell their harrowing tales, show their bullet scars. We must show you pictures of the children, who only recently traversed the Himalayan mountain range in the dead of winter in order to get a good education; we must show you their gangrened fingers and toes. The monks and nuns must have their say, as they are the backbone of Tibetan Buddhism and it is they who tend to lead the revolts within Tibet itself.

The picture of Tibet would be empty without His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the glue that holds the Tibetan people together as a community, all around the world. The interesting thing about the Tibet issue is that you can approach it from any angle. Political--in terms of communism, democracy. Environmental--in terms of the minerals being stripped from the Tibetan plateau, the polluted rivers that run through Tibet. Human rights--the torture and abuse the Tibetan people face if they dare to speak up against the communist government. Education--how Tibetans are struggling to retain their language and adapt to a more modern model of education in exile.

Religion--the destruction of Tibetan Buddhism by the Chinese, and the flourishing of it with sponsorship from the West. I can go on and on I think, somewhere in my silly head, that if I can just run down this list with you, at some point something will click. Jan 21, Stephanie rated it really liked it Shelves: I came across a recommendation for this book and I admit being somewhat jaded about it at the onset.

The author's experiences led her to conduct a sort of oral history project over many years with the intention of riting a book to document the experiences of Tibetan women especially during the time of the Communist invasion. I had some notion that this might turn out to be one of those rather syrupy women's studies sorts of books, with a bit of religious tourism as a veneer and a nod to social c I came across a recommendation for this book and I admit being somewhat jaded about it at the onset.

I had some notion that this might turn out to be one of those rather syrupy women's studies sorts of books, with a bit of religious tourism as a veneer and a nod to social consciousness.

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As I said, a bit jaded. Fortunately I overcame my misgivings and sat down and read through it. The style was easy to read and did not editorialize overmuch. The author did acknowledge and become a full participant in the book, including her own experiences in collecting the stories, which enhanced the narrative considerably and was a refreshing change from the strict anthropological approach which disingenuously disavows the observer's participation in the facts collected.

The experiences of the women themselves were both wrenching and inspirational. It was not an easy book to read in that respect. The author's status as a Chinese descendant added particular context to her observations. This is one of the more personally changing books I have read in the last few years. Jan 28, Malinda rated it it was ok. It is unfortunate that this author largely discarded a collection of Tibetan oral histories in favor of a twitchy and repetitive narrative centered on herself. Oct 25, Jayantika rated it liked it. This is my first book on Tibet. Reading about the history and the atrocities in Tibet breaks your heart.

The book details the life of Tibetan women mostly wives of aristocrats. The overlay of a twenty year time difference in stories of 4 women is quite intriguing at the surface, but the execution is not great and could have been better. The author vividly describes the changes that have taken place in the last 20 years, most of them are negative as it is expected but fails to put them in con This is my first book on Tibet.

Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History

The author vividly describes the changes that have taken place in the last 20 years, most of them are negative as it is expected but fails to put them in context to how the whole world has changed in the same time. At times, it feels like she would prefer to be stuck in past and dismiss the present because it doesn't suit her. She writes just a page at the end about Buddhist way of accepting the changes and move on, but it is not convincing. It is an ok-ish read.

I'm intrigued to read Daughter of Tibet after this. Jan 07, Miriam rated it it was ok. Jan 31, Katie rated it really liked it. It took me a little while to get into this, but once I did I really enjoyed it. It's very well written.


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I especially appreciated the focus on women. Jun 08, Naomi Johnson rated it it was amazing Shelves: Such an interesting book. I had no idea about the history of Tibet - love how Canyon Sam wrote about the women in Tibet, something that is often forgotten about when writing about history and current situations. Jan 02, Cheri rated it really liked it Shelves: The heart-wrenching personal stories of the women who survived the Chinese take-over of Tibet are powerfully told in this book, which is part oral history, part memoir, and part journalism.

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The brutality the women were forced to endure the monks and many of the men had fled, leaving the women and children behind was far worse than I could have imagined, and their resilience far stronger. I understand now that Tibet has been robbed not only of its independence but its culture, and essentially i The heart-wrenching personal stories of the women who survived the Chinese take-over of Tibet are powerfully told in this book, which is part oral history, part memoir, and part journalism.

I understand now that Tibet has been robbed not only of its independence but its culture, and essentially is no longer Tibet. The author states that she tried writing this book in several genres and finally settled on the mixture presented here, but it would have been more effective if she had minimized her own personal journey, which detracted from the stories of the Tibetan women.

May 31, Padri Veum rated it it was amazing. Canyon Sam has done some very fine writing in this book. Over the space of two decades, Sam visits Tibet, Nepal and India, meeting Tibetan women who survived the invasion by Tibet by China--and the subsequent decades of imprisonment, torture, disappearances and genocide and diaspora. All throughout her book, these stories of Sam's travels as a Chinese-American in the Himalayas never become sentimental.

Each chapter is incisive, as if it's been written to save a life--to deliver something, s Canyon Sam has done some very fine writing in this book. Each chapter is incisive, as if it's been written to save a life--to deliver something, some picture, some anecdote, some glimpse of the truth of these women's stories that will offer hope, not only to the women who have faced the brunt of China's policies in Tibet--but to a world where ending such tragic occupations seems not only a collective failure, but a collective impossibility.

Sam puts together the stories of four women, all of whom lived in Tibet before , and have lived there since.

University of Washington Press - Books - Sky Train

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