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73
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
65/100Critics
81/100Scholars
Author:
Barbara Demick
Publisher:
Random House
Date:
July 28, 2020
Eat the Buddha spans decades of modern Tibetan and Chinese history, as told through the private lives of Demickâs subjects, among them a princess whose family is wiped out during the Cultural Revolution, an upwardly mobile entrepreneur who falls in love with a Chinese woman, a poet and intellectual who risks everything to voice his resistance, and a Tibetan schoolgirl forced to choose at an early age between her family and the elusive lure of Chinese money. All of them face the same dilemma: Do they resist the Chinese, or do they join them? Do they adhere to Buddhist teachings of compassion and nonviolence, or do they fight?
What The Reviewers Say
The method is programmatic openness, deep listening, a willingness to be waylaid; the effect, a prismatic picture of history as experienced and understood by individuals in their full amplitude and idiosyncrasy.
... a brilliantly reported and eye-opening work of narrative nonfiction.
... candid, heartbreaking stories of real Tibetans who have lived through periods of great tumult in their homeland. The stories are beautifully rendered and walk readers through the events that shook Ngaba, a town in Tibet that became synonymous in the 21st century with tragic self-immolations, and is geographically a difficult place to visit. By showing how people’s individual lives unfolded and the hardships and dangers they endured, Demick sheds light on how Chinese oppression led many Tibetans to fight back, sacrificing their lives in the hopes of preserving their culture and their peoples’ right to freedom. Readers will be moved by the tragedies and triumphs of these unforgettable individuals and will develop a greater understanding of those who call the 'rooftop of the world' their home.
... a deeply textured, densely reported and compelling exploration of Ngaba, Sichuan.
