A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Goldstein, Melvyn C. / Sherap, Dawei / Siebenschuh, William R., PUBLISHER: University ong>ofong> California Press, This is ong>ong>theong>ong> as-told-to ong>politicalong> autobiography ong>ofong> Phuntso Wangye (Phunwang), one ong>ofong> ong>ong>theong>ong> most important Tibetan revolutionary figures ong>ofong> ong>ong>theong>ong> twentieth century. Phunwang began his activism in school, where he founded a secret Tibetan Communist Party. He was expelled in , and for ong>ong>theong>ong> next nine years he worked to organize a guerrilla uprising against ong>ong>theong>ong> Chinese who controlled his homeland. In , he merged his Tibetan Communist Party with Mao's Chinese Communist Party. He played an important role in ong>ong>theong>ong> party's administrative organization in Lhasa and was ong>ong>theong>ong> translator for ong>ong>theong>ong> young Dalai Lama during his famous meetings with Mao Zedong. In ong>ong>theong>ong> s, Phunwang was ong>ong>theong>ong> highest-ranking Tibetan ong>ofong>ficial within ong>ong>theong>ong> Communist Party in Tibet. Though he was fluent in Chinese, comfortable with Chinese culture, and devoted to socialism and ong>ong>theong>ong> Communist Party, Phunwang's deep commitment to ong>ong>theong>ong> welfare ong>ofong> Tibetans made him suspect to powerful Han colleagues. In he was secretly detained; three years later, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement in Beijing's equivalent ong>ofong> ong>ong>theong>ong> Bastille for ong>ong>theong>ong> next eighteen years. Informed by vivid firsthand accounts ong>ofong> ong>ong>theong>ong> relations between ong>ong>theong>ong> Dalai Lama, ong>ong>theong>ong> Nationalist Chinese government, and ong>ong>theong>ong> People's Republic ong>ofong> China, this absorbing chronicle illuminates one ong>ofong> ong>ong>theong>ong> world's most tragic and dangerous ethnic conflicts at ong>ong>theong>ong> same time that it relates ong>ong>theong>ong> fascinating details ong>ofong> a stormy life spent in ong>ong>theong>ong> quest for a new Tibet.