In this rich and deeply personal account of life in the highlands of Nepal, Geoff Childs chronicles the daily existence of a range of people, from venerated lamas to humble householders. Offering insights into the complex dynamics of the ethnically Tibetan enclave of Nubri, Childs provides a vivid and compelling portrait of the ebb and flow of life and death, of communal harmony and discord, and of personal conflicts and social resolutions. Part ethnography, part travelogue, and part biography, Tibetan Diary is a one-of-a-kind book that conveys the tangled intricacies of a Tibetan society.

Childs's immensely readable and informative narrative incorporates contemporary observations as well as vignettes culled from first-person testaments including oral histories and autobiographies. Examining the tensions between cultural ideals and individual aspirations, he explores certain junctures in the course of life: how the desire to attain religious knowledge or to secure a caretaker in old age contrasts with social expectations and familial obligation, for example. The result is a vivid and unparalleled view of the quest for both spiritual meaning and mundane survival that typifies life in an unpredictable Himalayan environment.

Reader Reviews

Sonam Pelden

(4/5)

Nov 20, 2019

Geoff Childs’s Tibetan Diary (2004) is an attempt to demystify the popular notion of the West that renders every Buddhist practicing Tibetan community in the world as ‘timeless,’ thereby resulting in its romanticization. Childs conducted his fieldwork in Sama, an ethnically Tibetan village in the Nubri valley in Nepal and concluded that Nubri is not as “exotic” as generally believed but instead, it is on the verge of “social, cultural, and economic transformations” (Childs, 2004, p. 25). His met...

Forrest Parkyr

(5/5)

Feb 18, 2018

A thorough ethnology discussing the comparisons between the people of Nubri and those from America, including disparities between what we imagine them to be like and how they really are.

Lynn V

Aug 07, 2020

A book mainly for scholars or those with serious interest in Tibetan culture and Buddhism

Madison

(3/5)

Dec 29, 2020

Anna

Dec 04, 2015

Alison

Feb 23, 2011

Andrew Magee

Nov 15, 2012

Elia inglis

Feb 19, 2016

Barry Daly

Aug 20, 2021

Alison Hoang

Sep 03, 2016

Simone Due

May 21, 2018

Maya

Jan 05, 2018

Melinda91

Jun 15, 2014

May 21, 2014

Peter

Oct 21, 2012

Michael

Oct 26, 2018

Amanda

Jun 05, 2011

Marinna Radloff

Feb 21, 2015

Agnete

Apr 13, 2013

Amanda Robinson

Dec 11, 2014

Mageth

Aug 16, 2014

Naye

Apr 08, 2014

Adam Mahler

Jul 13, 2017

Nicole Chen

Aug 18, 2017

Michael Callahan

(2/5)

Nov 18, 2020

Todd Marek

Oct 20, 2016

Marc Robbins

Sep 26, 2016

Shelby

Dec 11, 2016

Mark

Dec 25, 2019

Nisa

Mar 01, 2014

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Tibetan Diary: From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal

Tibetan Diary: From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal

Tibetan Diary: From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal

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Reader Reviews