A Strange Liberation, Tibetan Lives in Chinese Hands, by David Patt

A Tibetan Man and woman tell their deeply personal stories of 30 years of Chinese occupation.

Patt sets the stage by detailing the many factors that distinguish Tibet from China--geographical, ethnic, historical, linguistic, cultural, and religious. He then proceeds to examine the Chinese subjugation of Tibet from 1949, when the Chinese Communist army rolled into the country. The bulk of the book, however, consists of the testimony of two Tibetan survivors. Ama Adhe spent more than 25 years in prison and work camps, separated from her children. Tenpa Soepa, a participant in the 1959 uprising against the Chinese, was a prisoner for about 20 years. Their graphic stories portray torture, persecution, and starvation of near-genocidal proportions--as well as remarkable religious faith, strength, and will. This is an important account of a tragedy too little known and too often ignored by the outside world.
- Kenneth W. Berger, Duke Univ. Lib., Durham, N.C.