Escape from Tibet: A True Story

by Nick Gray, Laura Scandiffio (With)

Overview

Two brothers face cruelty, hardship, and hope, on the ultimate journey in search of freedom. Eleven-year-old Tenzin hasn’t seen his older brother, Pasang, in five years, so he is thrilled when Pasang unexpectedly returns to their Tibetan village late one night. Now eighteen, Pasang is an educated monk whose return from India provokes the suspicious and ever-watchful eyes of the Chinese authorities. Unbeknownst to Tenzin, Pasang has conspired with their mother to leave again—taking his younger brother with him, this time, in search of a better life. Based on the true story of the brothers’ journey in the mid-1990s first made into an acclaimed documentary by Nick Gray, Escape from Tibet is a riveting tale of courage, adventure, and triumph. A foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and an introduction provide historical context. Black and white photographs of Nick Gray’s travels through Tibet vividly evoke the boys’ homeland, and a timeline, glossary, and maps further contextualize the Tibetans’ controversial and ongoing struggle with China.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554516636
Publisher:	Annick Press, Limited
Publication date:	07/18/2014
Pages:	164
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	HL740L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Nick Gray is a documentary-maker whose films have won many international awards. He now writes and teaches at the University of Lincoln in England where he is Visiting Professor. Escape from Tibet is his first book.

Laura Scandiffio has written many non-fiction books for young readers, including the award-winning People Who Said No and, most recently, Outlaws, Spies, and Gangsters. She lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario.

Editorial Reviews

12/01/2014
Gr 5–8—Documentary filmmaker Gray and writer Scandiffio have collaborated on this account of two brothers who fled from their native Tibet to India. The story begins in the middle of the night, when 10-year-old Tenzin's older brother Pasang returned to his impoverished family home in occupied Tibet, years after escaping his monastery for greater freedom in India. Pasang convinced their mother to allow him to sneak the younger boy into India, a country with better prospects for Tibetans. But their journey was far from easy. With workmanlike prose, the authors describe the dangerous voyage as the brothers begged for money in unfriendly towns, evaded border police, and crossed the Himalayas on foot with only blankets to keep warm. The book emphasizes Tenzin's perspective on the events, effectively highlighting his bewilderment and distress at every stage of their journey, from the bustling city of Lhasa to the terrifying heights of the icy Death Pass and finally to the vagaries of refugee bureaucracy. But the younger boy's limited comprehension of his family's plight under Chinese rule sometimes renders the urgency of the trip confusing. Tenzin wasn't quite sure why they had to escape, and the brief introduction provides insufficient context for most readers to understand the perils of staying in Tibet and the opportunities to be gained from leaving. Still, the brothers' triumph makes for a heartwarming tale, and their story offers a glimpse at a corner of the world too little explored in works for this audience.—Robbin E. Friedman, Chappaqua Library, NY

School Library Journal

2014-09-14
Two Tibetans, 19-year-old Pasang and his 11-year-old brother, Tenzin, flee Tibet, a harrowing escape that includes hiking—in street clothes and worn sneakers—over the 19,000-foot-high "Death Pass" of the Himalayas. Pasang had already left Chinese-run Tibet once, becoming a novice Buddhist monk in India, returning home to help his brother seek a better life. The pair travels by train cross-country to Lhasa, where they spend several weeks evading Chinese police and amassing a nest egg by begging. A first attempt to cross a bridge to Nepal leads to capture and torture by Chinese border guards. That makes the frigid, perilous journey over the world's highest mountains seem like a safer alternative, but their suffering is intense, and even their eventual safe arrival in Nepal doesn't appear to guarantee the refugee status that will allow them to remain. During their flight, part of their journey is filmed by a British team and later made into a documentary; co-author Gray is the filmmaker. Although this collaboration includes dialogue that can only be surmised, Pasang and Tenzin subsequently "shared…extensive descriptions of their experiences and feelings" with Gray, which grounds the account. The graphic depiction of their experiences is so riveting that it reads like fiction, making the photographic insert a jarring reminder of reality. A valuable and fascinating resource, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama. (glossary, timeline of Tibet, history of Chinese-Tibetan relations, history of Buddhism in Tibet) (Nonfiction. 11-16)

Kirkus Reviews

Gripping...the tension and excitement unresolved until the final pages.

Mary Craig