The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 17 March 1998
by Barbara Crossette
Crossette is a New York Times reporter at the UN, but was previously posted to the Himalayan region of Nepal, Sikkim, Ladakh and Bhutan. This book is an engaging overview of life among Himalayan Buddhists as they deal with evolution from medieval kingdoms to modern nations. Her objective is to examine the changing culture of Buddhism, most particularly in Bhutan, the last independent Buddhist land in the region.
Crossette is clearly in love with the land and its people, but presents the material in an even-handed way. She travels from Bhutan, a nation struggling with immigration, tourism, and the balance of these with traditional life, to Ladakh, where Buddhists struggle to maintain identity in a turbulent region on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, to Nepal and Sikkim, where Hindu Nepalis dominate the culture. She spends most of her time in Bhutan, however, and we read of the king's ambivalence toward Nepali and Indian immigration and arcane laws to protect the culture from the dominance of a modern outside world. Bhutan struggles to modernize, though, and to avoid the fate of Sikkim, which was absorbed into India in the 1970s. Though the religion is a version of Tibetan Buddhism, little contact with Tibet remains, and there is little mention of the politics of the Tibetan exile community. These are ancient kingdoms, with their own history inexorably tied to Tibet, but looking to the future with their own identities. The book shows the present state of these exotic and attractive places and is fascinating in its unromantic portrayal.
[Other Buddhism and Tibet Books]
See also: [Younghusband][East of Lo Monthang]