Promotional Information

A selection of History Book Club

About the Author

Tsering Shakya was born in Tibet and attended the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University, where he is currently a research fellow in Tibetan Studies. Over the last ten years he has regularly briefed politicians on Tibet at the Foreign Office and the European Parliament. He is the author of Fire Under the Snow: The Testimony of a Tibetan Prisoner and numerous articles; he has taken part in television and radio discussions, and is frequently consulted on Tibetan matters by the BBC, The Times, the Observer, and the Guardian.

Reviews

An ocean of new material is presented from previously unpublished sources, making this the most significant entrant into the field of recent Tibetan history since Melvyn Goldstein's Snow Lion and the Dragon. Tricycle An important book that will encourage further research and discussion about Tibet. Choice He has employed thorough research, a balanced view and a dispassionate tone in writing a tremendously informative, definitive history of his native land. -- Steven Mufson Washington Post Dragon in the Land of Snows will undoubtedly take its place as the indispensable account of modern Tibetan history... Shakya informs it with a cool and rigorous historical mind, with which he cuts through the thickets of polemic on both sides. Literary Review A sober, factual, excellently researched, and surprisingly impartial account of the end of old Tibet. The Spectator At last, the history of Tibet we have been waiting for. It will irritate both Chinese and Tibetan chauvinists as it explodes their myths, misunderstandings, and propaganda. Tsering Shakya, a Western-trained Tibetan, has sensitively used Western, Chinese, and Tibetan sources to get nearer than anyone to the truth of Tibet's last fifty tragic years. -- Jonathan Mirsky A prodigious work of scholarship... The clearest picture yet of this period. This book will become a standard text. Sunday Telegraph Superbly well-research and written. -- Orville Schell Los Angeles Times Book Review