British writer, Patrick French, has earned a reputation as a brilliant historian for his books on the Indian partition and the biography of Arthur Younghusband. He has also led a second life as an idealist-activist for the Tibetan cause. But readers hitherto may not have come across any of his writings on his pet passion, apart from an obituary to a Tibetan martyr, Thupten Ngodrup, the Tibetan who burned himself to death protesting against what French calls the "poor and useless United Nations" in New Delhi in 1998.
In Tibet, Tibet: Dreams and Memories of a Lost Land, French treats the self-immolation of Ngodrup as an allegory of Tibet's struggle for survival. French, who knew Ngodrup during his student days in India, calls it a "very Buddhist death, a suicide bomber who turned his violence inwards, killing only himself, protecting others."
Combining memoir, travelogue and fine historical research, the book reads more like an account of French's own personal odyssey into Tibetan culture, religion and history over the past two decades, than as a revisionist history of Tibet. French's disenchantment with Tibet's struggle for self-determination shows throughout as he laments the speed with which the campaign for the Tibetan struggle is proceeding.
Thanks to his long association with exiled Tibetans, French writes fluently and confidently on the plight of the Tibetan nation, and the best part of the book lies in his deep observations of Tibetan history (some of which may even take Tibetans by surprise). Particularly valuable are his long travels into the heart of the Chinese-controlled country and his interviews with the Tibetans living there. He talks to Tibetan Muslims, untouchables, prostitutes and even Tibetan ex-red guards, who have lived through the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, providing readers with a peek into how Maoism once drove people to such destructive madness.
"What has disappeared for those inside Tibet is the link between the past and the present. This link has been broken systematically by the imposition of an alien political ideology, exported from industrial Europe, and the physical destruction of texts and objects. The effect of the mental cleansing has been to kill the processes of thought and memory that define a society. This rupture has left those in Tibet, both Tibetans and Chinese, in a state of something like atrophy," he concludes.
For French and his predecessors, travelers who endured immense hardship visiting the highly isolated region, Tibet was once a Shangri-La: the land of flying lamas, singing nuns, of rocky snow-clad mountains, lush green valleys and ancient mystics. French's fascination with Tibet began very early on, when the Dalai Lama paid a visit to his Catholic school in England. French says he was captivated by the Tibetan leader's charisma, which finally led him to the study of Tibetan Buddhism.
While he flags off the virtues of the religion, French avoids the accusation of being an enthusiast by noting that Tibetan Buddhism is also marked by many shortcomings -- like any ecclesiastical system. Among others, it has produced a best-selling lama who has earned a sexual harassment lawsuit and another who has recognized Hollywood's hard-kicking Steven Seagal as a reincarnation of a medieval Tibetan master.)
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