Blessings from Beijing: Inside Chinas War on Tibet in Exile

Blessings from Beijing, a combination of fine travel writing and great reportingis essential reading for its digging deep into the strengths and weaknesses of the exile Tibetans.Thubten Samphel, Hindustan Times In May 2012, three years after our meeting, the Dalai Lama publicly accused China of sending Tibetan agents to his doorstep not only to snoop, but to poisonThe allegation brought a swift Chinese denial...But the episode did prompt the inevitable question: Just what was China capable of? Sixty years after Chinas 1959 invasion of Tibetand the subsequent creation of the Tibetan exile communitythe question of the diasporas survival looms large. Beijings foreign policy has grown more adventurous, particularly since the post-Olympic expansion of 2008. As the pressure mounts, Tibetan refugee families that have made their homes outside Chinain the mountains and jungles of India and Nepal, or the cold concrete houses high above the Dalai Lamas monastery in Dharamsalaare migrating once again. Blessings from Beijing untangles the chains that tie Tibetans to China and examines the political, social, and economic pressures that are threatening to destroy Tibets refugee communities. Journalist Greg Bruno, who has spent nearly two decades living and working in Tibetan areas, journeys to the front lines of this fight: to the high Himalayas of Nepal, where Chinese agents pay off Nepali villagers to inform on Tibetan asylum seekers; to the monasteries of southern India, where pro-China monks wish the Dalai Lama dead; to Asias meditation caves, where lost souls ponder the fine line between love and war; and to the streets of New York City, where the next generation of refugees strategizes about how to survive Chinas relentless assault. But Brunos reporting does not stop at well-worn tales of Chinese meddling and political intervention. It goes beyond themand within themto explore how Chinas strategy is changing the