tibet autonomous region (china)

Author Yangzom Brauen shares details about her life and the lives of her mother and grandmother, who lived in Tibet during Chinese rule and were forced to find ways to preserve their identity and culture while in exile.

A memoir and portrait of three generations of Tibetan women whose lives are forever changed when Chairman Mao's Red Army crushes Tibetan independence, sending a young mother and her six-year-old daughter on a treacherous journey across the snowy Himalayas toward freedom. Kunsang thought she would never leave Tibet. When soldiers arrived at her mountain monastery, destroying everything in their path, Kunsang and her family fled across the Himalayas only to spend years in Indian refugee camps. This is a vivid glimpse of life in rural Tibet before the arrival of the Chinese in 1950.

In November 1943 five American airmen flying the dangerous Himalayan supply route were caught in a violent storm and blown far off their intended course. Bailing out just seconds before their plane ran out of fuel, they found themselves in the heart of Tibet. They were among the first Americans to enter the Forbidden City of Lhasa and the last to see it before the Chinese invasion.