Abstract
It seems that the current literature regarding Tibet is quite impoverished as a true cultural indicator of the region and its people. The West writes of Tibet as an exotic solution to its own malaise, or as the last refuge of Hermetic wisdom. The Han Chinese have used Tibet as a muse and as an antidote to materialism. The current literary criticism brushes over cultural and stylistic concerns to cut right to politics. In every case, Tibet as a cultural concept is simply used to complement something external to it, to stand in contrast to something else. The Tibetan writer Alai specifically rejects these negative and meaningless definitions of Tibet.
Highlights
Surveying the Literary Landscape It seems that the current literature regarding Tibet is quite impoverished as a true cultural indicator of the region and its people
The most important element lies hidden between the lines: a feeling for whether the writer anchors the text within Tibetan culture, or whether it floats somewhere on the outside.[1]
“Soul Knotted on a Leather Thong.”. This is the story of an author who is given the task by a dying lama to find and help two of the characters from his story
Summary
Surveying the Literary Landscape It seems that the current literature regarding Tibet is quite impoverished as a true cultural indicator of the region and its people. Alai The Tour Guide Alai’s The Mountain Stairway is at times a work of history; it is a cultural meditation, an epic journey, a collection of folk tales; it can strive towards the objectivity of an anthropological work and can occasionally soar to the subjectivity of poetry.
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