White Crane lend me your wings: A Tibetan Tale of Love and War

By Tsewang Yishey Pemba

-White Crane has special appeal as a posthumous novel from the founding father of Tibetan-English writing
-This is the first work of fiction to deal with the Christian missionary project in Tibet
-White Crane is also a significant historical fiction that provides insight into pre-1959 life in the Kham province of eastern Tibet, a period that has yet to be recorded by historians
-Through the story and struggle of Kham guerillas, this novel provides an alternate perspective to the exiled Tibetan government's discourse of a non-violent, peace-loving, and Buddhist Tibetan identity

A posthumous novel by Dr Tsewang Yishey Pemba, the founding father of Tibetan-English literature, White Crane, Lend me your Wings is a historical fiction set in the breathtakingly beautiful Nyarong Valley in the Kham province of Eastern Tibet, in the first half of the twentieth century. Dr Pemba skillfully weaves a dazzling tapestry of individual lives and sweeping events, creating an epic vision of a country and people during a time of tremendous upheaval.

The novel begins with a never-told-before story of a failed Christian mission in Tibet. It takes the reader deep into the heartland of Eastern Tibet, capturing the zeitgeist of the fierce warrior tribes of Khampas ruled by their chieftains. This coming-of-age narrative is a riveting tale of vengeance, warfare and love, which unfolds through the life story of two young boys and their family and friends. The personal drama becomes embroiled in national catastrophe as China invades Tibet, forcing it out of its isolation.

Ultimately, the novel delves into themes such as tradition versus modernity, individual choice and freedom, the nature of governance, the role of religion in people's lives, the inevitability of change, and the importance of human values such as loyalty and compassion.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9385285629
• ISBN13: 9789385285622
• Release Date: July 2017
• Publisher: Niyogi Books
• Length: 468 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A beautiful story of love, courage, war, friendship, family, loyalty and Tibet. Free Tibet!!!!!

བྱ་དེ་ཁྲུང་ཁྲུང་དཀར་པོ།། གཤོག་རྩལ་ང་ལ་གཡོར་དང༌།། ཐག་རིང་རྒྱང་ལ་མི་འགྲོ།། ལི་ཐང་བསྐོར་ནས་སླེབ་ཡོང༌།། White Crane, lend me your wings I do not go far To Lithang And then back There is no title so befitting as “White Crane, Lend me your wings” that can resonate with Tibetans. This is a heart wrenching and riveting historical fiction set in Nyarong Kham in Tibet. It’s a coming of age story about love, vengeance, war, loyalty, family and friendship. The two protagonists, Tenga Dragotsang and Paul Stevens are childhood friends brought up together in Nyarong valley. Tenga, a pure Tibetan Khampa and Paul, the son of an American couple who came to Tibet as part of a Christian missionary, both of different nationality yet were Khampa warriors at heart. Paul is a white boy who prefers to speak in Nyarong Tibetan dialect than English. He calls his mother Ama and his father Agya. The novel begins with Tenga and Paul’s childhood in Nyarong and the writer did an excellent job portraying the beautiful landscape and topography of Nyarong. You can feel the writer’s fondness for Khampa and their ways throughout the story. As the story develops, you familiarize yourself to Khampa traditions, their morals, principles, religion and values. By the time the boys reach manhood, the People’s Liberation Army were at the door. Then begins a tale of courage. The boys along with their friends take upon themselves to fend for their elders, women, children, monks, monasteries and land. The details of these young guerrilla fighters in war are so well written, one can visualize the whole thing. I love a book with a good beginning and a good ending. And this one has it all. The ending is not the end because our story has not finished yet. The ending opens to new possibilities, new opportunities, new stories, new beginning, a new generation of Tibetans and a new Tibet that belongs to Tibetans. This melancholy story is a reminder that Tibetan diaspora should return home, maybe not at this very moment but we should return at some point. This reminds me of a Nyarong folksong that goes: The white crane is the bird of the north, Born there… yet he flies south. The north is not an unhappy land, But winter ice has gripped the blue lakes. One particular favorite scene of mine is when Tenga, Paul and friends were returning home from hunting and on a bridge, they met few Chinese Kuomintang soldiers who ordered them to make way. Tenga stood his ground and said, “We are on our way home. We have the right of way. You have transgressed into our land. You have no rights here — none whatsoever. Ponpo Chiang Kai-shek means nothing to me. He doesn’t own a single hair on my head! …. Our valley begins from here… from this very bridge. This bridge is ours. This river is ours.” The writing of this scene is such that I could see Tenga ’s hand on the hilt of sword ready to unsheathe it any moment, I could hear the icy wind blowing and the prayer flags at the side of the bridge noisily flapping. This scene was the transition from a happy Tibet to a miserable one.