Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History - Softcover

Sam, Canyon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 029598953X ISBN 13: 9780295989532

Publisher: University of Washington Press, 2015

Synopsis

Through a lyrical narrative of her journey to Tibet in 2007, activist Canyon Sam contemplates modern history from the perspective of Tibetan women. Traveling on China's new "Sky Train," she celebrates Tibetan New Year with the Lhasa family whom she'd befriended decades earlier and concludes an oral-history project with women elders.

As she uncovers stories of Tibetan women's courage, resourcefulness, and spiritual strength in the face of loss and hardship since the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950, and observes the changes wrought by the controversial new rail line in the futuristic "new Lhasa," Sam comes to embrace her own capacity for letting go, for faith, and for acceptance. Her glimpse of Tibet's past through the lens of the women - a visionary educator, a freedom fighter, a gulag survivor, and a child bride - affords her a unique perspective on the state of Tibetan culture today - in Tibet, in exile, and in the widening Tibetan diaspora.

Gracefully connecting the women's poignant histories to larger cultural, political, and spiritual themes, the author comes full circle, finding wisdom and wholeness even as she acknowledges Tibet's irreversible changes.

For more about the author, go to http://www.canyonsam.com/skytrain.html

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Years ago following her ancestral roots to China, but finding instead Tibet as a spiritual home, Canyon Sam made a miracle of a journey. Now in Sky Train she guides the reader on a life-changing adventure back to Tibet after more than twenty years and an epoch of cataclysmic change to produce a miracle of a book." - Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Woman Warrior and China Men

"A book that is sure to illuminate a Tibet so many of us have been longing to know." - Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple

"[Pays] tribute to the courage and resilience of Tibetan women. . . . Many readers will be moved by these powerful tales." - From the Foreword by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

"Through the experiences of older Tibetan women, the author offers a captivating journey spanning half a century and several countries. Sky Train conveys women's lessons of community-building, generosity, faith, and determination. A beautiful, moving, riveting book." - Valerie Masumoto, UCLA

"What I learned from this wonderfully written book that compels with page-turning intensity is so much more than the history of how China swallowed Tibet, how 'change' looks and feels different depending on the eyes that view it. The inspiring lesson that stays with me as the book's afterglow is that of the ability of the mind that is filled with faith to emerge from the most dreadful privation unscathed, resilient. This book about the Dharma of connection, of companioning, of compassion, has strengthened my own devotion." - Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life

"The reader feels as if she were right there on this journey. Canyon Sam weaves the stories of these women seamlessly together with her own personal experience of Tibet. It is her love for the country - its culture and its people - which makes this book so special. An important work . . . poignant and inspiring." - Sharon Salzberg, spiritual teacher and author

About the Author:

Canyon Sam is a San Francisco writer, performance artist, and Tibet activist. Her one-woman show The Dissident was critically acclaimed in the Village Voice and the Boston Globe. This is her first book.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 029598953X
• ISBN 13: 9780295989532
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 284