AUTHENTICATING TIBET: Answers to China's 100 Questions, ed. by Anne-Marie Blondeau and Katia Buffetrille, fore. by Donald Lopez

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AUTHENTICATING TIBET: Answers to China's 100 Questions

ed. by Anne-Marie Blondeau and Katia Buffetrille, fore. by Donald Lopez

The land of Tibet--its people, culture, and religion--has long been both a source of fascination and an object of contention. Since 1959, Tibet has also been at the center of a particular controversy when China's "peaceful liberation" of the Land of Snows led to the Lhasa uprising and the Dalai Lama's escape to India. In 1989 the Chinese government published a booklet, 100 questions about Tibet, that sought to counter the criticism generated by the Dalai Lama and his followers and to offer the PRC's "truth" about Tibet and Tibetans. Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China's "100 Questions" offers clear and unbiased responses to that booklet. In Authenticating Tibet, international Tibet scholars offer clear, unbiased answers to the 100 questions and deal evenhandedly with both China's perception about Tibet and that of the Dalai Lama and his supporters. Although these experts refute many of the points asserted by China, they do not offer blanket endorsements of the claims made by the pro-Tibet movement. Instead, they provide an accurate, historically-based assessment of Tibet's past and its troubled present. Designed for use by a general audience, the book is an accessible reference, free of the polemics that commonly cloud the Tibet controversy.

"This book is a gold mine of extremely valuable information about Tibet not easily accessible otherwise. The contributors show perspective and balance in answering '100 Questions' about Tibet, and they provide a thoughtful account that will be of great use to all concerned with the Tibetan situation."--George Dreyfus, Williams College

Anne-Marie Blondeau is Honorary Professor of Tibetan Studies, and Katia Buffetrille is a Research Fellow, both at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. Donal Lopez is Arthur E. Link Distinguished Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan.