Tibetans

Mary Harris Veeder

Part of Thomson's new Threatened Cultures series, this strongly emphasizes minority rights issues while introducing material on Tibetan religion and culture. Profiles of a 12-year-old girl in a rural nomadic family and of a 12-year-old boy living in the capital city of Lhasa prevent easy generalizations about all Tibetans. Kendra doesn't fully explain the genesis of Tibetan Buddhism, and she covers history before the Chinese invasion less thoroughly than she does more recent events, but she effectively increases a sense of the country's geopolitical complexities and highlights the central role a distinctive language plays in a minority culture. A concluding chapter, The Future, refutes meliorism. Like other books in the series (see Series Roundup in this issue), this is illustrated with lively, mostly color photographs, boxed insets provide additional facts, and a glossary and a list of suggested readings and resources are appended.