Synopses & Reviews
Foreign observers, western and eastern have frequently idealized the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, describing it as a peaceful, timeless city defined by Buddhist traditions and a contented population, while others have seen it as foul-smelling, oppressive, or backward. In this imaginative new work, Robert Barnett juxtaposes contemporary accounts of Tibet, architectural observations, and his own experience to offer a sharp yet lyrical exploration of Lhasa and its current status as both an ancient city and a modern Chinese provincial capital.
Interspersed throughout the book are dramatic, firsthand accounts of the underground drive for Tibetan independence and the violent confrontations that shook Lhasa in the late 1980s. Plunged by chance into the thick of Tibetan demonstrations, Barnett conveys the anguish of a desperate situation, which is only exacerbated by outsiders' attempts to intercede. His narrative of the city moves from encounters with the wounded in Lhasa, to Chinese border officials, to Tibetan defectors in a London restaurant. He discovers a city whose story is woven from the tangled threads of myth, legend, history, and desire and shaped by a rich cultural heritage and the impact of political ideals and restraints.
Barnett also offers an innovative perspective on the experience of foreigners in a city not their own. Acting as an archeologist of the urban soul, he leads the reader into the web of historical layering, popular memory, symbolism, and the architectural statements that constitute the story of a city. Besides the ancient Buddhist temples and former picnic gardens of the Tibetan capital, Barnett describes the urban sprawl, the harsh rectangular structures, and the geometric blue-glass tower blocks that speak wordlessly of the dreams of successive regimes determined to improve upon the past. The buildings and the city streets, as Barnett demonstrates, recount the story of Tibet's complex transition from tradition to modernity and its painful history of foreign encounters and political experiment.
Synopsis
There are many Lhasas. One is a grid of uniform boulevards lined with plush hotels, all-night bars, and blue-glass-fronted offices. Another is a warren of alleyways that surround a seventh-century temple built to pin down a supine demoness. A web of Stalinist, rectangular blocks houses the new nomenklatura. Crumbling mansions, once home to noble ministers, famous lovers, nationalist spies, and covert revolutionaries, now serve as shopping malls and faux-antique hotels. Each embodiment of the city partakes of the others' memories, whispered across time and along the city streets.
In this imaginative new work, Robert Barnett offers a powerful and lyrical exploration of a city long idealized, disregarded, or misunderstood by outsiders. Looking to its streets and stone, Robert Barnett presents a searching and unforgettable portrait of Lhasa, its history, and its illegibility. His book not only offers itself as a manual for thinking about contemporary Tibet but also questions our ways of thinking about foreign places.
Barnett juxtaposes contemporary accounts of Tibet, architectural observations, and descriptions by foreign observers to describe Lhasa and its current status as both an ancient city and a modern Chinese provincial capital. His narrative reveals how historical layering, popular memory, symbolism, and mythology constitute the story of a city. Besides the ancient Buddhist temples and former picnic gardens of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa describes the urban sprawl, the harsh rectangular structures, and the geometric blue-glass tower blocks that speak of the anxieties of successive regimes intent upon improving on the past. In Barnett's excavation of the city's past, the buildings and the city streets, interwoven with his own recollections of unrest and resistance, recount the story of Tibet's complex transition from tradition to modernity and its painful history of foreign encounters and political experiment.
Synopsis
A critically-acclaimed sensation, "Lhasa" combines multiple views of a shimmering city with the lyrical observations of a seasoned journalist. Robert Barnett paints an unforgettable portrait of urban sprawl, harsh architecture, ancient Buddhist temples, and poignant echoes of the past. Reflecting the anxieties of successive regimes, Lhasa is a mirror of Tibet's complex transition from tradition to modernity. Barnett captures this narrative perfectly, showing how material layering, popular memory, symbolism, and mythology can constitute the story of a city.