Terror in Tibet

Five Novels about Chinese Terror Tactics and Cultural Genocide in Tibet

There are many reasons why an author can become one's favorite: mastery of language, pace of action, intimate knowledge of her or his topic, clarity, engagement, honesty - the list of reasons is too long, too complicated and probably too personal to complete here.

Hardcover 2007 - Paperback: Dec. 2008

For me, anyway, Eliot Pattison has become on of those favorite authors ever since he began his Tibetan series of novels that now counts five parts.

1. The Skull Mantra (2000)
2. Water Touching Stone (2001)
3. Bone Mountain (2003)
4. Beautiful Ghosts (2005)
5. Prayer of the Dragon (2007)

Although Pattison is someone who has been to Tibet and has seen the terrible oppression there with his own eyes, he couldn't have known - of course - what would happen in Lhasa and beyond during the Olympic year of 2008.

However, if people at the IOC had read (and heeded) his stories - or if the so-called leaders of the world would actually care as to what happens at ground-level - no one in his right mind would ever have awarded the Olympic Games to the Peoples Republic of China.
It is no wonder, really, that Pattison has meanwhile been banned from traveling to China. Critics of the regime are not welcome!

On two of these books which I have (there have been several UK and US editions with various covers), they are classified as thrillers, on another one I see the words action adventure. This may be good for sales, and it is even true on some level, but these classifications also have serious shortcomings when one deals with an author such as Eliot Pattison and with a topic such as the struggle of the Tibetan, Uighur and Kazakh people against the oppressive, communist Chinese regime trying to impose its power and values at any cost and with all means available.

These novels are an impressive achievement by an author who knows both cultural climates well, and who has also immersed himself rather deeply into the unique mixture of Tantric Buddhism and ancient Shamanism that makes Tibet so unique a culture. As Pattison combines the old ways with the new realities, he takes us on an amazing voyage that leads from secret monasteries built deep into the mountains to labor camps and prison cells, and also to vast deserts and high peaks where the winds are still indigenous spirits that can easily crush any army truck or a helicopter.

These books are thrillers because there is a Chinese detective involved who tries to solve murders and disappearances, but even more so they are brilliantly written literary novels that speak of integrity and hope, of struggle and sacrifice, valor and faith. The many characters, from aged monks to young girls, from nomads to outcasts, from freedom fighters to the few Western protagonists; all are described with a depth that one actually seems to know them after a while.

That Pattison's descriptions of life in contemporary Tibet are less fiction than reality - even though these are novels - is also borne out by the fact that his website has been blocked, off and on, by the Chinese authorities.
Congratulations!