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In the last sixty years, Tibet has been so mythologized and politicized that the outside world remains confused about what really happened when Mao Tse-tung invaded in 1950. Buddha’s Warriors is the story of the tens of thousands of Tibetans who violently resisted the bloody occupation of their country and the desecration of all that was holy to them. From the farthest reaches of Tibet—Kham, Amdo and Golok—the most feared tribes in Asia mounted their warhorses and rode together for the first time in history. By their side were thousands of Buddhist monks who renounced their vows of nonviolence, grabbed swords, and—in the name of freedom—charged into enemy lines. Tibet’s only source of outside help came from a small group of CIA agents, who secretly trained and armed the freedom fighters.
Author Mikel Dunham spent seven years interviewing the warriors who fought the Chinese, collecting stories that otherwise would have been lost to history. He also befriended the CIA officers who trained the young Tibetans. These firsthand accounts bring faces and deeply personal emotions to the forefront of the ongoing tragedy of Tibet. Buddha’s Warriors is a sweeping history of a nation—and an ancient culture—under siege. The saga of the Tibetan Resistance Movement is one of brave soldiers and cowardly traitors, courage against repression, Buddhism against atheism, and, ultimately, of what happens to an isolated civilization when it is thrust—almost overnight—into the horrors of modern-day warfare.
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Pages : 448
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