Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town

”when the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the world.”

I love nonfiction books about places the average person doesn't get to see, or about stories/history people really should know about. I did a deep dive on books about North Korea after I read Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, and when I saw she wrote a book about Tibet I decided to make that my next read. It was a good choice.

In this book, Demick tells the story of Ngaba, a small Tibetan town that, through the actions of its people, becomes a center of resistance to Chinese occupation. Through the stories of ordinary Tibetans, Demick shows the devastating impact of Chinese policy on Tibetan lives, including the destruction of monasteries, the suppression of religion, and the forced assimilation of Tibetan culture. The author made three trips in total to Ngaba, and interviewed many Tibetans from there and surrounding areas to tell their stories. Their points of view vary widely, but each of their stories is handled with compassion, empathy, and a desire to make sure their stories are heard.

This book really tugged at my heartstrings in places. I loved how Demick took the varied stories from these people and turned it into a compelling narrative framework that also allowed her to talk about the history and struggles of these people. It was one of the things that made her book about North Korea such a great read, and I was delighted to see that the same was true here.

Well-written, informative, and provides valuable perspective into the Tibetan people's struggle for freedom. Highly recommend.

Author Barbara Demick tells the oral history of a town in one of the less well-known areas of Tibet, Ngaba. Tibet's government and its spiritual leader, the Dali Lama, have taken refuge in India for decades, and the Tibetan people that remain within China are discriminated against and are kept highly guarded by the Chinese government. Demick interviews and tells the stories of a Tibetan princess, a Tibetan nomad, a Tibetan intellectual, and a Tibetan entrepreneur, among others. The central question for each of them becomes whether to resist the Chinese or fall into line with them.

It's a fascinating story of a people marginalized and persecuted.

I remember reading Demick's Nothing to Envy. I took it on vacation with me to the lake when we went with Matt's family, and I remember sitting at a picnic table and ignoring everything going on around me as I devoured it.

Eat the Buddha was not a book I wanted to sit and devour (even if we pretended I have the time and mental energy these days). I easily lost track of who some of the people were, because it jumped around in time and from character to character. There was little that was listed as happening after 2014, and for a book that was published in 2020, it felt like there should be more of the modern history. It felt incomplete?

The information about the Chinese Communist Party and the propaganda, fear and destruction of their ways of life, and Tibetans feeling as though they're living in a war zone whose whims can change as government leadership does, that was all excellent. I do not ever need more information about people setting themselves on fire as a form of protest.