The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong
The Untold Story of My Struggle for Tibet
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Shortly before midnight on March 17, 1959, the Dalai Lama, without his glasses and dressed as an ordinary Tibetan solider, slipped out of his summer residence with only four aides at his side. At that moment, he became the symbolic head of the Tibetan government in exile, and Gyalo Thondup, the only one of the Dalai Lama's brothers not to don the robes of a Buddhist monk, became the fulcrum for the independence movement.
The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong tells the extraordinary story of the Dalai Lama's family, the exile of the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism from Tibet, and the enduring political crisis that has seen remote and bleakly beautiful Tibet all but disappear as an independent nation-state.
For the last sixty years, Gyalo Thondup has been at the at the heart of the epic struggle to protect and advance Tibet in the face of unreliable allies, overwhelming odds, and devious rivals, playing an utterly determined and unique role in a Cold War high-altitude superpower rivalry. Here, for the first time, he reveals how he found himself whisked between Chiang Kai-shek, Zhou Enlai, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the CIA, as he tried to secure, on behalf of his brother, the future of Tibet.
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China scholar Thurston (China Bound) assists Thondup, elder brother of the Dalai Lama, in telling the story of his life and his homeland's battle for autonomy. Thondup recalls his family's humble origins in the Amdo region; they were uprooted and traveled to Lhasa when his four-year-old brother was declared a candidate for Dalai Lama. Groomed to become a political advisor, Thondup is sent from tumultuous Tibet to study in China, establishing close ties with Chinese president Chiang Kai-Shek and hoping to return home to institute modernization reforms. The 1949 Communist takeover in China and subsequent invasion of Tibet puts his plans on hold; Thondup returns to an impoverished Lhasa as Chinese troops bomb monasteries and use "colonial, imperialistic tactics to divide and rule." Escaping to India, Thondup works with the CIA to train resistance fighters. A tense situation escalates with riots at Norbulingka Palace and the Dalai Lama flees to India, where the brothers organize a "government in exile." After decades of broken negotiations, Thondup returns to Tibet to take over a noodle factory, ruminating on Tibet's continued status as a colony in a world where so many have been liberated. Thondup is straightforward about his regrets regarding his own actions and remarkably less bitter than one would expect. Thurston challenges some of his memories and assertions in her afterword, though it's unclear why she did so. Though the narrative grows repetitive by the end, this is a vital narrative of Tibetans' ongoing effort for independence, and Thondup's bravery is commendable. Photos.