A Tibetan Revolutionary

Name: A Tibetan Revolutionary
Price: 45.95 AUD
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ISBN: 9780520249929

The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye

Melvyn C. Goldstein, Dawei Sherap, William R Siebenschuh

$45.95

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English

University of California Press
04 September 2006

Biography: historical, political & military; History; Asian history; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Political activism

This is the as-told-to political autobiography of Phüntso Wangye (Phünwang), one of the most important Tibetan revolutionary figures of the twentieth century. Phünwang began his activism in school, where he founded a secret Tibetan Communist Party. He was expelled in 1940, and for the next nine years he worked to organize a guerrilla uprising against the Chinese who controlled his homeland. In 1949, he merged his Tibetan Communist Party with Mao's Chinese Communist Party. He played an important role in the party's administrative organization in Lhasa and was the translator for the young Dalai Lama during his famous 1954-55 meetings with Mao Zedong. In the 1950s, Phünwang was the highest-ranking Tibetan official within the Communist Party in Tibet. Though he was fluent in Chinese, comfortable with Chinese culture, and devoted to socialism and the Communist Party, Phünwang's deep commitment to the welfare of Tibetans made him suspect to powerful Han colleagues. In 1958 he was secretly detained; three years later, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement in Beijing's equivalent of the Bastille for the next eighteen years.

Informed by vivid firsthand accounts of the relations between the Dalai Lama, the Nationalist Chinese government, and the People's Republic of China, this absorbing chronicle illuminates one of the world's most tragic and dangerous ethnic conflicts at the same time that it relates the fascinating details of a stormy life spent in the quest for a new Tibet.

By: Melvyn C. Goldstein, Dawei Sherap, William R Siebenschuh
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9780520249929
ISBN 10: 0520249925
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 04 September 2006
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Note on Romanization and Abbreviations List of Key Persons Introduction. A Brief Historical Context PART I. GROWING UP IN KHAM AND CHINA 1. Childhood in Batang 2. The Coup of Lobsang Thundrup 3. School Years PART II. THE TIBETAN COMMUNIST PARTY ERA 4. Planning Revolution 5. Returning to Kham 6. To Lhasa 7. The Indian Communist Party 8. On the Verge of Revolt 9. Escape to Tibet 10. From Lhasa to Yunnan PART III. THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 11. The Return to Batang 12. The Seventeen-Point Agreement 13. To Lhasa Again 14. With the PLA in Lhasa 15. A Year of Problems 16. An Interlude in Beijing 17. Beginning Reforms PART IV. INCARCERATION 18. Tension in Lhasa 19. Labeled a Local Nationalist 20. To Prison 21. Solitary Confinement 22. A Vow of Silence PART V. AFTER PRISON 23. Release from Prison 24. A New Struggle 25. Nationalities Policy Epilogue. A Comment by Phunwang Appendix A. Original Charter of the Eastern Tibet People's Autonomous Alliance Appendix B. Summary of Talks with Tibetan Exile Delegations Appendix C. Some Opinions on Amending the Constitution with Regard to Nationalities Glossary of Correct Tibetan Spellings Index

Melvyn C. Goldstein is John Reynolds Harkness Professor in Anthropology and Codirector of the Center for Research on Tibet at Case Western Reserve University. Dawei Sherap is a Tibetan-born intellectual living and working in China. He has written extensively on Phunwang. William R. Siebenschuh is Chair of the English Department at Case Western Reserve University.

Reviews for A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye

""A surprising and necessary book on Phunwang for anyone seeking to understand Tibet."" - New York Review of Books ""Few books illuminate the lives of secular Tibetans, making this vibrant biography of a Tibetan revolutionary an invaluable addition to modern Tibetan history.... [Phunwang's] awe-inspiring story fills many gaps in the history of the relationship between China and Tibet and introduces to a wider world an extraordinary human being."" - Booklist ""It is both an astonishing tale of idealism and courage and an appalling catalogue of bad faith and historical blunder...[an] important book."" - Financial Times ""Presents a significant, if neglected, aspect of Tibetan biographical history."" - Shambhala Sun/buddhadharma ""Taken from many hours of interviews, the narrative flows well, and the translation is highly readable, with helpful explanatory footnotes."" - Library Journal""