Volume 51, Number 19 · December 2, 2004
Destroying the Dharma
By Jonathan Mirsky
A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye
by Melvyn C. Goldstein, Dawei Sherap, and William R. Siebenschuh
University of California Press, 371 pp., $24.95
When the Sky Fell to Earth: The New Crackdown on Buddhism in Tibet
a report by the International Campaign for Tibet
128 pp., available at www.savetibet.org
Bapa Phüntso Wangye, known as Phünwang, was a founder of the Tibetan Communist Party and was once highly regarded as a strong leader by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping; he is also remembered with respect and affection by the Dalai Lama. Born in 1922, he was the chief interpreter during the discussions between the Dalai Lama and Mao in 1954 and 1955. In 1960 he was arrested for 'counterrevolutionary acts'—mainly protesting China's treatment of Tibet—and began an eighteen-year sentence in Beijing's Qincheng prison for important political prisoners, the longest sentence on record. The Chinese government, as shown in the documents collected in When the Sky Fell to Earth, condemns the Dalai Lama as 'unscrupulous.' It is therefore notable that Phünwang, speaking in Beijing where he now lives, says that 'most people' in Tibet and nearby regions
Review, 4304 words
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