Books about Tibet and Refugee Culture

If you wish to learn more about Tibetan and refugee culture, here are books I particularly enjoyed during my research for How to Make a Life: A Tibetan Refugee Family and the Midwestern Woman They Adopted.

Books for Adults

Brauen, Yangzom. Across Many Mountains: A Tibetan’s Family’s Epic Journey from Oppression to Freedom. NY: St Martin’s Press, 2011.

Dalai Lama XIV. Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama. San Francisco: Harper, 1991.

Das, Lama Surya. Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World. New York: Broadway Books; 1998.

Dorjee, Tenzin. The Tibetan Nonviolent Struggle: A Strategic and Historical Analysis. Washington, DC: ICNC Press, 2015.

Dolma, Kunsun with Evan Denno. A Hundred Thousand White Stones: An Ordinary Tibetan’s Extraordinary Journey. Sommerville MA; Wisdom Publications, 2013.

Faderman, Lillian with Ghia Xiong. I Begin My Life All Over: The Hmong and the American Immigrant Experience. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998.

Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation. NY: Broadway Books, 1999.

Kao Kalia. The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2008.

Library of Congress archives two digital collections of hundreds of interviews with Tibetan elders, monks, and nomadic people:

  • Goldstein, Melvyn (Editor). Political History Collection of the Tibetan Oral History and Archive Project, (TOHAP) collected by Center for Research on Tibet, Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Washington, DC Library of Congress. 1982-present.
  • Tibet Oral History Project (TOHP), centered out of Moroga, California. Marcella Adamski (founder and executive director) and Tenzin Yangchen (Outreach director and translator). 2003-present.

Sambhaya, Padma (Compiler), Robert Thurman (Translator), The Dalai Lama (Foreword), Karma Lingpa (Collaborator). The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between. NY: Bantam Books, 1993.

Sopa, Geshe Lhundub, Paul Donnelly (Editor) and His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Foreward). Like a Waking Dream: The Autobiogrpahy of Geshe Lhundub Sopa. Sommerville MA: Wisdom Publications, 2012.

Books for Children and Young Adults

Berger, Barbara. All the Way to Lhasa: A Tale from Tibet. (Ages 4-8). NY: Philomel Books (Penguin), 2002.

Dolphin, Lourie. Our Journey from Tibet. (Ages 8 and older). NY: Dutton Children’s Books, 1997.

Gerstein, Mordicai. The Mountains of Tibet. (Ages 5-8). Cambridge, MA: Barefoot Books, 2013.

Gray, Nick with Laura Scandiffio. Escape from Tibet: A True Story. (Ages 12-14). Toronto: Annick Press, 2014.

Sis, Peter. Tibet Through the Red Box. (Ages 11 and older). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux imprint Frances Foster Books, 1998. Caldecott Honor Book.