Memories of Life in Lhasa Under Chinese Rule / / Tubten Khétsun.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Backlist (2000-2014) eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Khétsun, Tubten,
• TeilnehmendeR: Akester, Matthew.
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2007]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (344 p.) :; 16 illus.

Born in 1941, Tubten Khétsun is a nephew of the Gyatso Tashi Khendrung, one of the senior government officials taken prisoner after the Tibetan peoples' uprising of March 10, 1959. Khétsun himself was arrested while defending the Dalai Lama's summer palace, and after four years in prisons and labor camps, he spent close to two decades in Lhasa as a requisitioned laborer and "class enemy." In this eloquent autobiography, Khétsun describes what life was like during those troubled years. His account is one of the most dispassionate, detailed, and readable firsthand descriptions yet published of Tibet under the Communist occupation. Khétsun talks of his prison experiences as well as the state of civil society following his release, and he offers keenly observed accounts of well-known events, such as the launch of the Cultural Revolution, as well as lesser-known aspects of everyday life in occupied Lhasa. Since Communist China continues to occupy Tibet, the facts of this era remain obscure, and few of those who lived through it have recorded their experiences at length. Khétsun's story will captivate any reader seeking a refreshingly human account of what occurred during the Maoists' shockingly brutal regime.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Translator's Introduction -- Preface -- CHAPTER 1. The Story of My Family -- CHAPTER 2. My Childhood -- CHAPTER 3. The March 10th Uprising -- CHAPTER 4. The Chinese Fan the Flames of War -- CHAPTER 5. Imprisoned at the Tibet Military District Headquarters -- CHAPTER 6. Imprisoned at the Norbu Lingka Barracks -- CHAPTER 7. At the Nga-chen Power Station Construction Site -- CHAPTER 8. In Téring Prison -- CHAPTER 9. In Drapchi Prison -- CHAPTER 10. The Trong-nying Prison Farm -- CHAPTER 11. Back Home from Prison -- CHAPTER 12. The Agitation by the Muslims of Woba-ling -- CHAPTER 13. The Fall of the Panchen Lama -- CHAPTER 14. The Misuse of Education -- CHAPTER 15. The Establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region -- CHAPTER 16. The Onset of the Cultural Revolution -- CHAPTER 17. The June 7th Massacre -- CHAPTER 18. A Disastrous New Year -- CHAPTER 19. Old Tsampa in Old Méru -- CHAPTER 20. The Sino-Soviet War Brings Increased Oppression -- CHAPTER 21. The "One Smash and Three Antis" Campaign -- CHAPTER 22. The "Great Massacre" -- CHAPTER 23. PLA Soldiers Destroy the Fruits of the People's Labor in the Marshes -- CHAPTER 24. The Systematic Destruction of Ganden Monastery -- CHAPTER 25. Sent to Kongpo for the Second Time -- CHAPTER 26. The Xichao Dachang Timber Yard -- CHAPTER 27. The Tölung Power Station Construction Camp -- CHAPTER 28. The Lin Biao Affair -- CHAPTER 29. The Defamation Campaign -- CHAPTER 30. "Socialist Transformation" -- CHAPTER 31. The Banak-shöl Production Cooperative -- CHAPTER 32. The Farmer's Life -- CHAPTER 33. The Death of Mao Zedong and Subsequent Developments -- CHAPTER 34. The Rewards of My Hard Work -- CHAPTER 35. Working in the Potala Palace -- CHAPTER 35. Working in the Potala Palace -- Epilogue: Leaving Tibet -- Index