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This book is the outcome of pioneering research into a controversial period of Tibetan history. It is the first study to tackle events from the Cultural Revolution using extensive interviews and fieldwork in the areas concerned, complemented by newly retrieved contemporary Chinese documents.
It provides a detailed account of the "Nyemo incident", which culminated with Tibetan villagers, inspired by a possessed nun (Trinley Chödrön), but guided by the Gyenlo revolutionary faction, attacking the PLA and, earlier, unarmed local villagers whom they mutilated and killed, and then marching on the local government seats in Nyemo County on June 13-14 1969. Although this event was limited in scale, it became highly significant for Tibetans, the Chinese government and scholars of Tibet. The Chinese government at first considered the incident an anti-revolutionary uprising to be crushed by the army, subsequently criticized this view when it was declared a factional fight, and has since resumed a position closer to the initial one to the extent that a patriotic shrine was recently dedicated to the victims of the attack. The exiled Tibetan community celebrated the Nyemo incident as an epic of national resistance, and even though some of the disturbing details, linked to local revenge, occasionally percolated through informal networks as people from the area came to India, these failed to be reflected in general views.
The book aims to unravel the intricacies of this event and often runs against the grain of Chinese and Tibetan nationalistic interpretations. It sets...