CONTENTS

Preface - Dondrup Wangbum

A Soul in Bondage

Tibet: the Mysterious Years

Plateau Serenade

Over the River

The Free Man Qimi

On the Way to Lhasa

The Silent Sage

The Old Manor

Invitation of a Century

The Light on the Cliff

The Banished Prince

"What did you say?"

"You go on alone. 1 don't want to follow you day

after day. You don't know where you're going.

You' 11 wander for ever."

"Women don't understand anything." He knew

where he was going.

"Maybe 1 don't understand," she shut her eyes

again.

"Get up!" He kicked hcr in the rump, and raised

his hand to strike her. "Get up or I'll beat you!"

"You're a devil!" cried Jade, scrambling to her

feet. Tabei tumed and walked away, leaving Jade to

scramble after him as best she could.

One night, Jade ran away. She strapped the little

pot on her back and stole away into the night. She

picked her way down the mountain by the light of the

moon and stars. The next day, as she rested beside a

deep chasm, she saw a figure approaching from a dis-

tance. It was as it had been the first time she saw

Tabei. He caught up with her and she tumed on

him with the feroci of a comered beast. She seized

the pot and smashed at him with all her might. But

the blow went wide. He knocked the pot from her

grasp and sent it bouncing into the chasm. They heard

it rattling down to the bottom. She climbed down the

chasm after it. It was hours before she pulled herselfup

again. The little pot was full of dents.

" Look what you' ve done to my pot,'' wailed Jade.

Tabei took the pot from her, and they examined it

together.

"There's only one small crack," he remarked.

"I'll fix it."

Tabei tumed away, and Jade followed reluctantly.

Suddenly she threw back her head and sang, and

her strange, wild song echoed from peak to peak and

down into the valleys.

The truth was Tabei was weary of Jade. He believed

that in a past life he had accumulated enough merit to

have escaped the underworld and been rebom. But on

his way to Nirvana woman and gold were the stum-

bling blocks that he must rid himself of.

Tibetan writer Tashi Dawa's mystical, imaainativei

short stories, evidence ot an exciting new literary

talent, make an important contribution to a Drofound-

er understanding of the Tibetan world. Earlv stories

"Plateau Serenade" and "Over the River* are straight-

forward, delicate descriptions of Tibetan society,

whereas later works, employing the methods of "mao-

ical realism", show the influence of Latin-Amercan

writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "Invitation of

a Century", The Light on the Cliff and The old

Manor" deal with the psychological tensions aroused

by the conflicting demands of a society in flux where

old values and traditional culture are being cha-

lenged by the forces of modernization.