• Tibet was invaded in 1950 by the powerful People's Liberation Army of China, which quickly overwhelmed the small, antiquated army of Tibet in a bloody struggle that saw machine guns confronted by muskets and swords. As the Chinese brutally consolidated their control of the country, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of Tibet, fled to exile to India.
• Over 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed as a direct result of the Chinese occupation.
• Over 6,000 monasteries and temples, many containing priceless cultural and religious artifacts, have been destroyed by the Chinese.
• In many parts of Tibet, including its largest cities, the colonization by the Chinese has turned Tibetans into a minority in their own country. In the capital city of Lhasa, 150,000 Chinese have been brought from the eastern regions of China, overwhelming the 60,000 native Tibetans living there. On average, in Tibet's cities and most fertile valleys, Chinese outnumber Tibetans by two to one.
• The use of the Tibetan language is sharply curtailed by the Chinese government. Children are taught in Chinese at school, and most good jobs are available only to Chinese speakers.
• The average Tibetan is pushed to the depths of poverty by the system imposed from Beijing. The average monthly income of rural workers in Tibet is $10.
• For many years the practice of Buddhism was outlawed as the Chinese systematically destroyed the physical structures of the Buddhist church and executed or imprisoned its leaders. Even the recitation of Buddhist mantras was forbidden under penalty of prison.
• Today religious observance is strictly regulated. The number of active monks and nuns is sharply curtailed through a severe licensing system. The Chinese head of the Bureau of Religious Affairs in Tibet has publicly announced that when the exiled Dalai Lama dies, no successor will be permitted.

Books About Tibet

The characters and places in these novels are entirely fictional. The fifty-year struggle of the Tibetan people to maintain their faith and integrity in the face of extreme adversity is not.

For readers interested in learning more about that struggle, a number of books on the modern Tibetan experience have been written, including several excellent first hand accounts by or about Tibetan survivors. These include:

• A Strange Liberation: Tibetan Lives in Chinese Hands by David Patt
• In Exile from the Land of Snows by John Avedon
• Sama Adhe: The Voice That Remembers by Adhe Tapont-sang and Joy Blakeslee
• The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk by Palden Gyatso with Tsering Shakya