Tales of Tibet: Sky Burials, Prayer Wheels, and Wind Horses

Fourteen stories by young writers from China and Tibet are collected in Tales of Tibet: Sky Burials, Wind Horses, and Prayer Wheels (edited and trans. by Herbert Batt), a volume intended to record and dramatize the relationship between Tibetans and their Chinese colonizers. Both groups of writers focus on the venerable Buddhist traditions of Tibet. The country's history under foreign powers and its role as spiritual mecca undergird the tales, which feature, variously, a Tibetan beggar who claims to own a rich man's house, a British commander who invades Tibet in 1904 and a Buddhist nun who achieves a state of perfect compassion.