The noodle maker of Kalimpong

Description

Shortly before midnight on March 17, 1959, the Dalai Lama, without his glasses and dressed as an ordinary Tibetan solider, slipped out of his summer residence with only four aides at his side. At that moment, he became the symbolic head of the Tibetan government in exile, and Gyalo Thondup, the only one of the Dalai Lama's brothers not to don the robes of a Buddhist monk, became the fulcrum for the independence movement. The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong tells the extraordinary story of the Dalai Lama's family, the exile of the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism from Tibet, and the enduring political crisis that has seen remote and bleakly beautiful Tibet all but disappear as an independent nation-state. For the last sixty years, Gyalo Thondup has been at the at the heart of the epic struggle to protect and advance Tibet in the face of unreliable allies, overwhelming odds, and devious rivals, playing an utterly determined and unique role in a Cold War high-altitude superpower rivalry. Here, for the first time, he reveals how he found himself whisked between Chiang Kai-shek, Zhou Enlai, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the CIA, as he tried to secure, on behalf of his brother, the future of Tibet. Introduction IX Preface XXV 1 Taktser Village and Kumbum Monastery 1 2 My Family II 3 The Search Team Arrives 23 4 My Brother Is Recognized as the Fourteenth Dalai Lama 31 5 The Dalai Lama's New Life 41 6 My Family's New Life 49 7 My Life Changes 57 8 My Student Days in Nanjing 69 9 Stranded in India 83 10 Becoming an Intermediary 89 II The Chinese Invade 99 12 The Long Journey Home 117 13 Home Again 129 14 Escape from Tibet 139 15 Beginning Life in India 145 16 The Dalai Lama Visits China 153 17 The Dalai Lama Visits India 157 18 The CIA Offers to Help _167 19 The Dalai Lama's Escape 181 20 From Mussoorie to Dharamsala 191 21 Mustang 201 22 Settling Down in India 2II 23 The War between China and India 223 24 The CIA Stops Its Support 229 25 A New Life in Hong Kong 237 26 My Return to China 243 27 The Tench Panchen Lama 253 28 Meeting Deng Xiaoping 257 29 Return to Tibet 263 30 Our Negotiations Fail 273 31 Another Opportunity Lost 279 32 Opportunity Lost Again 285 33 Return to Tibet 289 34 Watching the World from Kalimpong 293 Afterword 303 Notes 3IJ Selected Bibliography 327 Glossary 333 Index 337