Eye-opening look at Tibet

Eat the Buddha

Author: Barbara Demick Publisher: Text

RRP: $34.99 Reviewer: Mary Ann Elliott

JUST as with her book on North Korea, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick explores one of the leastknown countries in the world, Tibet.

For centuries it was known as a “hermit kingdom”, hidden by the forbidding Himalayas.

A reclusive theocratic government was led by a succession of Dalai Lamas, each believed to be a reincarnation of his predecessor.

In the past 200 years foreigners have tried to enter the country disguised as monks or hermits.

Nowadays it is the Chinese Communist Party that shuts doors, not Tibetans.

In her fascinating book, Demick explores this land from 1956 to the present.

China has ruled Tibet since 1950, calling it their “Autonomous Region” but in truth it is off limits to most, except Chinese tourists. Most of all, journalists are kept at bay, which of course piqued Demick’s interest all the more. Her story is told through the eyes of modern everyday Tibetans and focuses on the town of Ngaba, a centre of resistance for decades, beginning with Mao’s Red Army incursion in the 1950s, looting monasteries and eating religious statues made of flour and butter (hence the title). Often romanticised as deeply spiritual and peaceful, Demick reveals what it is really like for Tibetans trying to preserve their religion, culture, traditions and language. The superpower that is China today pervades every aspect of their lives, leaving them powerless and shackled to the tyranny of their overlords, forced to attend propaganda lectures, and suppressed at every turn. It’s an eye-opening, confronting, even heartbreaking story; Demick tells it with compassion for these long-suffering gentle people who long only for freedom.