Eat the Buddha

Life and Death in a Tibetan Town

by Barbara Demick

hardcover, 352 pages

Published July 27, 2020 by Random House.

ISBN:: 978-0-8129-9875-7

(10 reviews)

Just as she did with North Korea, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick explores one of the most hidden corners of the world. She tells the story of a Tibetan town perched eleven thousand feet above sea level that is one of the most difficult places in all of China for foreigners to visit. Ngaba was one of the first places where the Tibetans and the Chinese Communists encountered one another. In the 1930s, Mao Zedong’s Red Army fled into the Tibetan plateau to escape their adversaries in the Chinese Civil War. By the time the soldiers reached Ngaba, they were so hungry that they looted monasteries and ate religious statues made of flour and butter—to Tibetans, it was as if they were eating the Buddha. Their experiences would make Ngaba one of the engines of Tibetan resistance for decades to come, culminating in shocking acts of self-immolation.

Eat the Buddha spans …

Eat the Buddha spans decades of modern Tibetan and Chinese history, as told through the private lives of Demick’s subjects, among them a princess whose family is wiped out during the Cultural Revolution, a young Tibetan nomad who becomes radicalized in the storied monastery of Kirti, 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?

Illuminating a culture that has long been romanticized by Westerners as deeply spiritual and peaceful, Demick reveals what it is really like to be a Tibetan in the twenty-first century, trying to preserve one’s culture, faith, and language against the depredations of a seemingly unstoppable, technologically all-seeing superpower. Her depiction is nuanced, unvarnished, and at times shocking.

2 editions

altlovesbooks reviewed Eat the Buddha by Barbara Demick

Review of 'Eat the Buddha' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

”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.