Precious Jewels of Tibet

Jane Bay's Memoir of personal transformation is inextricably linked with the story of the heroic struggle of the Tibetan people and the Buddhist faith that is the prime source of their courage, endurance, and inspiration. In Precious Jewels of Tibet we meet Tibetans, both exiles and those now suffering under Chinese oppression, and experience with the author the liberating lessons of impermanence, compassion, commitment, and love.On a pilgrimage to India, Jane is accompanied by a spiritual friend, the Tibetan monk Lobsang Samten, through both physical events and spiritual passages that will have increasing significance in her life. While in Dharamsala, India, the present home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, she agrees to sponsor a teenage Tibetan foster child, Namgyal, who was being educated at the Tibetan Children's School. After months of correspondence she learns that the Tibetan children who had family still living in Tibet were forced to return. To refuse would have brought severe consequences to their families; to return meant to give up all hope of a Tibetan education -- since the Chinese occupying regime systematically suppresses Tibetan language and culture. On a trip to Tibet to try to find her foster daughter, Jane is again accompanied by Lobsang, who travels to his homeland after thirty-eight years of exile. He seeks surviving family members, including two brothers who were imprisoned for trying to save sacred objects in a Buddhist temple. The trip would become especially dangerous for Lobsang if the Chinese were to discover his connection with the Dalai Lama's home monastery.The author interweaves her own story with the experiences of theTibetans she came to know and with Buddhist teachings that have helped to illuminate her contemporary personal odyssey. Her candid observations as well as her informative descriptions of current conditions in Tibet make this book a richly rewarding experience.